this is "nightline." tonight, being buttafuoco. >> what a beautiful family. >> the notorious name and infamous shooting. >> a woman was shot in the head. >> mary jo buttafuoco, shot by her husband's mistress, sharing how she sur daughter revealing rare interview through her eyes and the twists and turns that followed. >> just when i thought things couldn't get any crazier, oh, it did. >> what the ex-husband says about his affair with a minor, and what his daughter is determined to do.

>> "nightline" starts rightin t joining us, i'm kyra phillips. a bullet did not silence her, but that single shot still echoes. the island woman shot by her husband's mistress speaking out about the case that changed her family forever. byron pitts has the story. >> tonight we begin with a mysterious shooting in the suburbs in long island. >> after 27 years, you would think there's nothing new to learn about this story. oh, but there is. >> reporter: it's the story of a married man with the unforgettable last name, buttafuoco. >> joey knew of my intention toward his wife and encouraged me. >> reporter: his wife, mary jo, unsuspecting of her husband's behavior. >> swrojoey is a fabulous liar. i didn't realize that then.

i didn't realize how much he man epilated mow and how much he lied to me, but he d. >> reporter: the drama played out across nearly news outlet ot and tabloid with amy fisher. >> i was a 16-year-old teenager. >> now you may think this is an open and shut case. amy came to my house, shot my mother in the face. guilty as charged, boom. but not so much. >> reporter: mary jo and joey's daughter jessie now sitting down for a rare interview. >> growing up, my family life was ideal. >> i met joey in summer school of ninth grade. and he was just the funniest guy in the room. he was a class clown. >> she was gentle. and she came from a great family that had great values. >> reporter: they marry in 1977. they have a son paul and

daughter jessie. joey works at the family's auto body hop, s body shop, she at a bank. the couple buy a house on long island, new york. >> it was a great, great life. i loved it there. >> what a beautiful family. >> growing up, my father was always the king. you know, i had him on the highest pedestal. he was always the fun dad. >> reporter: the buttafuocos seemed to have it all, but not everything was picture perfect. the buttafuocos' lives would come crashing down in the spring of 1992. a teen aged girl rings the doorbell at the buttafuocos' home and tells her name as ann marie and her little sister is having an affair. >> and i said your little sister, how old are you?

he said i'm 19. how old's your little sister? she's 16. i said listen, ann marie, i don't know what you want me to do about this, and i believe i said "thanks for coming by." with that, i turned my head, went for the door, and that was the end of my life as i knew it. >> that bullet had come in, broke the jaw, severed the carotid artery. for whatever reason, that bullet wound up at the base of her brain above her spinal column. >> he told us, she's going to die, she'll be blind. >> mary jo was in surgery for seven hours. they were never able to remove the bullet. t w t precarious. >> reporter: the shooting instantly makes headlines. >> this kind of thing doesn't happen to people like her. she's the all-american woman and mother and wife. >> detectives didn't know what it was. neighbors didn't know what it

was. reporters had no idea what it was about. >> i don't know how long it was, next day. day after that. >> i asked her, who did this to you, and she couldn't speak, but she was trying to write. >> and i just wrote down what i remembered. i wrote 19-year-old girl, ann marie. and the biggest clue of all was i wrote doubt complete auto body tee shirt. >> i only did one tee shirt, and that's how that tee shirt came to be such an important piece of evidence. >> the cops learned that elliot fisher has a daughter named amy. >> reporter: police take joey home, ask him to call amy and have her meet him. >> after they got off the phone she got in the car and drove off and within aew minutes police sirens pulled her over and that was it. she was arrested. >> reporter: 17-year-old amy was questioned for hours. when she's released, news

reporters are swarming the station. >> she's walked to the police car, with long hair almost down to her waist and cut-off jeans and a tee shirt. people were astounded. who is this kid? >> reporter: the press dubs fisher the long island lolita. they met when she was 16 years old, he was 36. amy's father had unwittingly introduced his daughter to joey. >> elliot would say to me, if amy ever has an accident, just take care of it and send me the bill. and that's what she did. she started smashing mirrors. with her coming in all the time, that relationship went where it went and was over real fast but with bad results. >> according to amy, the first time she had a sexual relationship with joey was about a month before she turned 17. they went back to her house, he drove her home, and he had sex with her in her childhood bedroom. >> my relationship with amy was

inappropriate. that's as far as i'll go with that. you're talking about a 16 year old girl who was infatuated by a guy who was flashy. >> the story was an attempted murder case for about two or three days. and after that, the motive for the shooting took over that story. ? she's charged with shooting her lover's weave. >> wife. >> it wasn't about the shooting anymore but about amy and joe. >> her defense was we struggled and fought over the gun and the gun accidentally went off. there werenly two people on that step that day, me and her. she was there to kill me. >> reporter: it turns out, amy had tried to recruit others to help her. >> amy fisher approached them months ago, begging them to help her kill mary jo buttafuoco. >> reporter: steven says amy fisher had enlisted his help because he owned a rifle.

>> she wanted me to shoot mary jo. i said amy would pay me to sit and watch the house. >> reporter: he says he and amy make the first attempt the day after halloween 1991. amy goes to the buttafuocos' home telling mary jo she's selli selling candy. >> take the shot. >> i couldn't even get a clear shot. i said this is crazy, i'm not going to go through with this. >> then she rattled off, i don't need him, just get me a gun, i'll do it myself if i have to. >> reporter: after amy goes back to shoot mary jo, stevenne a deal. then a friend who knew amy from high school came forward saying he refused amy's request for help but introduced her to sheman. >> when those two came forward,

that was the lynch pin. that's what allowed the d.a. to put forward conspiracy charges against amy fisher. because now they could say it was a cold, calculated decision to go there with a gun and shoot mary jo buttafuoco. >> i was sick. i couldn't believe it, like somebody actually stalked me, hired other people to kill me. when that didn't work she did it herself. >> reporter: a third man who provided the gun and was the get away driver the day mary jo was shot ultimately is arrested and pleads g pleads guilty to criminal sale of a weapon. slooeman says amy always had cash. but where is she getting the om. >> investigators looking into a possible link between fisher and a bald went escort service, say she constantly wore a beeper, even in school. >> she says, i'm escort.

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byron pitts. >> it happened yesterday at -- >> police say she shot mary jo once in the head. >> reporter: the story about how amy fisher came to shoot mary jo buttafuoco captivated america. taking an even darker turn in the weeks after the shooting. >> one of the bombshells was that amy had worked for an escort service. >> when a girl at that age becomes that promiscuous at 17, there's something wrong there. >> reporter: the story is now a full-blown media circus. mary jo defends her husband joey who denies having an affair with amy. >> joe was adamant, he screamed from the rooftops, he had nothing to do with her sexually. >> to almost everyone else, it seemed obvious that joey was lying about his affair with amy fisher. >> my job now was not to recover

and to get over this horrible injury, it was to defend my husband. and i took that role on extremely well. >> just when i thought things couldn't get any crazier, oh, it did. >> amy's lawyer sells her leaif story to pay off her $2 million bail and skcuts a plea deal. >> amy fisher pleaded guilty to assault charges. >> this was not an assault! >> we were all furious. >> reporter: at amy's sentencing, she faces mary jo for the first time sense shooting her and confesses to an affair withdes to pass the blame. >> it's also the truth that joey knew of my intentions towards his wife and encouraged me. these things, your honor, they are all true, they are facts. >> all these accusations that i planned the murder, i put her up to it, was ridiculous. >> the d.a. clearly wanted to

prosecute joey buttafuoco at the least for statutory rape, but bb they had issues. the victim didn't want her husband prosecuted. so ultimately, they abandoned the investigation. >> i remember like the relief, like thank god, thank god's over. and it was just the beginning, because my husband has a big mouth. >> reporter: amy fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years behind bars, but nothing could contain the public's appetit for the story. >> took on a life of its own, that's what the public was seeing, that's what they wanted, that's what the media wanted of the did i play into that? yes, i did, of course i did. >> you would think after a huge tragedy like this you would maybe want to maintain a low profile, but no, that didn't happen. >> reporter: within a month of her sentencing, three made-for-tv movies are aired

about the affair which joey is still denying. >> whatever amy wants amy gets. >> reporter: joey hits the talk show circuit. >> joey went off on the clear joey's name tour. >> reporter: after joey makes several media appearances, one of his co-workers goes on geraldo rivera's show. >> did he ever mention a lady named amy fisher? >> he said he made love to her several times and said she was 16 years old. >> reporter: the district attorney finally charges joey buttafuoco. >> another sad chapter in the story of amy fisher. the legal age.t to be charged >> reporter: swrojoey is releas after spending four months in a nassau county jail. >> mischief seems to always get

into him. >> reporter: by 1996, the family relocates to california, but their problem them. ry jo ultimately seeks treatment for a drug addiction. >> so, between physically getting off the medication and then the counseling that i got, it made me stronger. made me come home and realize, okay, you know, i've got to try and fix what i can fix. i can't fix him. i can only fix me. >> i was derailed, you know. if it wasn't drugs it would be women. that's all i can really say about that. >> reporter: mary jo ends up divorcing joey in 2003, more than a decade after the shooting. but the end of the marriage still doesn't end the amy fisher story. in 2006, a producer approaches joey about reuniting with amy and mary jo for the tv shows entertainment tonight and the y

out and sold out and convinced mary jo to do it for the money, because i had spent all the money i had, plus had to borrow money from my dad. >> i was made an offer i couldn't refuse. i was octa point sitting in the room with em but it turned into a fiasco. >> i don't sleep with children. i don't have sex with children. >> you did with me. >> you have no remorse. >> i'm done, thank you, everybody. ? >> we pushed the envelope pretty far where i pretended to be romantically involved with amy, which we were not. >> we always loved each other. >> yeah, we did. we did. >> yeah. >> and i just remember being so pissed. you're galavanting around the streets of new york with the woman who tried to murder my amy and where's amy fisher yoursel? well, she's got an ex-husband, a

few kids and a tragic past behind her. >> there she is. >> she is choosing to be a webcam girl. >> she goes online and guys pay herman her money or girls, and she has sex with herself. >> reporter: the current chapter of the buttafuoco family story finally seems headed in a positive direction. >> i wouldn't be here or be able to speak to you without having my coach, robert, help me through all of my issues. it was like 60 years of issues. >> i committed to listen to him as someone who was going to be a safe space for him to reveal whatever there was to reveal. >> reporter: for jessie, moving on means moving in with her mother. >> about a year ago my mom got diagnosed with some pretty scary health news, so it's more peace of mind for me to be able to live with her. >> my jessie. that little angel, she has

suffered a lot. watching this, this debacle that has gone on between her mother and her father all these years. and i think she's paid a high price for it, emotionally and mentally. >> it's extremely hard for me to think that love exists. it's really hard that i missed out on that. >> that's one of the walls that she has put up that i wish she could knock down. >> we'll be right back. so i'm gonna hold on promoting you this quarter, cool? drop the taco, get in the car. does this sentra feel like a compromise to you? wait what? the handling, it's good right? no compromise there... nope. watch this... brie brie... (sfx: rab beeps) rear automatic braking. so if this nissan sentra isn't gonna compromise why should you? you're right! that a girl. the all new nissan sentra. with more standard safety features than any other car in its class. ♪

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and that's "nightline" for tonight. you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here at the same time next week, thanks for watching, i'm kyra phillips, and have a safe labor day weekend. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's jimmy kimmel live, with guest host, lil rel. tonight, yvonne orji and music from riley. and now, here's lil rel.

>> what's going on, i'm your