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The following love stories have the kind of nightmare endings that make us grateful for our own ho-hum toothpaste squabbles and dirty laundry disputes.

Unless you've been in a cave lately, you probably know the story of Lisa Nowak, the astronaut who traveled hundreds of miles, adult diapers and wig in tow, to get rid of a romantic rival. Even though the specifics of this story are unusual, the premise certainly isn't. The following love stories have the kind of nightmare endings that make us grateful for our own ho-hum toothpaste squabbles and dirty laundry disputes.

1. In stereotypical fashion, Clara and David Harris seemed to have it all. The attractive couple practiced dentistry together and shared a rather lucrative lifestyle. But, after Mr. Harris started seeing the couple's receptionist, Clara Harris made national news headlines for running over her cheating husband in a motel parking lot. Mrs. Harris contended that she had acted in the heat of passion, but her step-daughter's presence in the car, and the contention that Clara ran over her philandering husband between two and five times didn't help her defense. Currently, Clara Harris is in the midst of serving the fourth year of her 20 year sentence.

2. In the 19th century, another Clara Harris gained notoriety when she and her fiancé, Major Henry Rathbone, were guests of the President and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln for a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. During that infamous showing, Rathbone tried to prevent John Wilkes Booth from escaping after he assassinated the president, only to be wounded himself. Years later, once the two were married, Henry still seemed affected by that night at the theater. Eventually, nearly delusional and convinced his wife would leave him, Henry shot Clara and then tried to stab himself to death. Clara died, and Henry spent the rest of his life in an asylum. When their son, Henry Jr., was grown, he was elected to the U.S. Congress and worked to turn Ford's Theater into a museum so that fateful night wouldn't haunt anyone else.

3. U.S. Congressman Daniel Edgar Sickles secured the future of one of the nation's most prominent landmarks when he attained the land that would become New York's Central Park. But, Central Park will never be "Devil Dan's" legacy. Instead, Daniel is remembered for shooting down his wife's lover in the streets of Washington, D.C. while numerous witnesses looked on. (Interestingly enough, the lover was Philip Barton Key, the son of the man who penned "The Star Spangled Banner.") Sickles never even served a day in prison for the crime. He was the first person to ever use the "temporary insanity" defense – and it worked.

4. Holly Maddux thought that she had finally escaped her roller coaster of a relationship with the charismatic counter culture figure, Ira Einhorn, when she moved to New York in 1977. However, when Ira found out that Holly was seeing someone else, he was furious and demanded that she return to Philadelphia that day if she wanted any of her belongings from the apartment they once shared. Nearly a year and a half later, police discovered Holly's body inside a trunk in Ira's closet after repeated complaints from the neighbors about a terrible odor coming from upstairs. Ira, who is often credited with founding "Earth Day," escaped to Europe and spent the next two decades hiding from authorities and fighting extradition. He finally went to prison for Holly's murder in 2002.

5. It seems impossible to make a list about love gone wrong – in crazy, crazy ways - without including the globally-known, often feared and sometimes revered, Lorena Bobbitt. Driven by what she claimed were years of psychological and physical abuse, Lorena castrated her husband one night and then threw his man parts into a nearby field. After providing the fodder for many a late night monologue, Lorena was cleared of any wrongdoing. Her husband later tried a career in pornography, and, using her maiden name, Lorena now styles hair outside of Washington, D.C.

6. John Honan was distraught when his wife, Robbi, passed away in 1982. Robbi had been traveling so John never saw her body and was only informed of her death via a phone call from her twin sister, Teri. Eventually, Teri traveled to New Hampshire to be with her sister's widow, and the two developed a relationship of their own. You can imagine Mr. Honan's surprise when the police showed up at his door and let him know that Teri and Robbi were, in fact, the same person, and that neither was a real name. The woman John had been living with was actually wanted killer Audrey Marie Hilley who had poisoned her first husband and tried to kill her own daughter. Although, fortunately for Audrey, murder wasn't a dealbreaker for John, and he eventually moved to Alabama to be closer to the prison where Audrey would carry out her sentence.

7. We'll end on a story with a much lighter tone. In 1919, silent screen star Rudolph Valentino married Jean Acker after a whirlwind courtship. For these two beautiful actors, there was little to stand in their way – except for the fact that Jean was a lesbian. She locked her new husband out of the suite on their wedding night, and years later, when Rudolph was charged with bigamy for re-marrying in Mexico, "The Great Lover" had to admit in court that he never consummated his first marriage. It seems that Jean was more interested in the name than the man – she later sued for the right to use Mrs. Rudolph Valentino in perpetuity.

Want to keep reading? Return to the Relationships channel.

If these kinds of crime dramas interest you, check out 'T'il Death Do Us Part' each week on Court TV.