by William F. Woo

About the author: William F. Woo, former executive editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Missouri, teaches journalism at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley.

In June, 1969, a man named James Edward Drope went on trial in St. Louis County on charges of raping his wife. A quarter century ago, spousal rape was not the issue it is today, but this was—and would become even more so—an unusual case.

On the night of the crime, Drope and his buddies had been out drinking. Afterward they came to his house, where they all took turns raping his wife.

Drope had been seeing a psychiatrist. He persuaded Drope’s wife that it would be good...