♪ my name is jessie buttafuoco. you may recognize the name, buttafuoco. our name means fire thrower. buttafuoco! fire thrower. but now it means a joke. top ten list on david letter

mon. >> get a cheap laugh by saying buttafuoco. >> it all started in 1992 with a gunshot. from then on, life as i knew it was insane. you may even recognize the story, but i'm here to tell you, you don't know the real story. >> there were only two people on that step that day. she was there to kill me. >> a teenager shows up at a door, and shoots her in the face? what? >> she's accused of an affair with a married man more than twice her age. but who is amy fisher? >> amy fisher, the villain. dun dun dun. well, i guess there's a few villains in this story. >> joey buttafuoco. >> joey knew of my intentions towards his wife. >> this phenomenon starts to happen. it's not about me anymore. it's not about the person who got shot and assassinated in front of her own home. it's about joey and amy.

>> lights, camera, action. joey loves that. >> tell us your side, joey, right? >> this story has never gone away. it's been told a million times. i got shot in the head, she did it, and he had something to do with it, too. now is the time to talk about it and not drown myself in booze and drugs. i kind of made it my mission, i'm going to make this name something again. because it turned to [ bleep ] if one man can change the meaning of a name, one woman can change it back. and i'm that woman. ♪ why did love put a gun in my hand? ♪ let's start at the very beginning. this is buttafuoco 101. here are the players. we have my dad, joey buttafuoco. he's the larger-than-life, you know, baggy pant wearing, mullet-rockin' dude. and we have my mom, mary jo, who's an absolute angel and the best mother anyone could ask for. the other player in this story is amy fisher, the teenager

obsessed with my father, who's the one who shot my mother in the face. hold on, let's take it back. we gettin' ahead of ourselves here. let's go back to happier times. i was in living in massapequa, new york, a beautiful, little suburb on long island, new york. growing up, my family life was ideal. >> i met joey in summer school of ninth grade. we had both failed social studies. and we were in summer school. and he was just the funniest guy in the room. he was a class clown. >> i was a ruffian, i was a hooligan, you know, with my little crew of hooligans, you know. my affection for mary jo was -- she was very -- she was, back then, a gentle woman, a gentle girl. she was gentle, and she came from a great family that had great values. you know, i clearly did not. >> my mom and dad knew him. and he was part of the family. always there, very generous.

generous to us, loving. >> i know that i busted his rear end to marry me because i was getting flack from my mother and father because you can't have sex before you get married. i'm telling you way too much. we're out of school. we're working. we got engaged, and within a year we -- we got married. we were doing very well. he was working at his father's auto body shop, which was the mi >> in the early days, i'd work at the shop with my dad. we had a pretty good-sized crew and i was enjoying it. i was loving that. >> i was working in a bank. we bought a house. we saved money. we did really, really well. >> i always worked very, very hard my entire life. yeah, i got sidetracked with drugs and all that. you know, even in the earlier days, if mary jo was one of those people that could do a

line -- "i'm done, i'm good." smoke a little weed and have a little drink of whatever, and i'd be like, "done? you're done?" >> i had a little boy and i had a little girl and the white picket fence. it was all there. and my son is sweet and sensitive, and my daughter is rambunctious and gets up in the morning singing and dancing. and they're as opposite as can be, but they got along very, very well with each other. when the time came that, it's either the drugs or the family, the drugs had to go as far as i was concerned, but with him, he didn't or couldn't stop. >> my son was born at that point, and a lot of pressure and stress, and i was still doing cocaine with my friends, you know, living that life, you know. >> joe was acting kind of erratic. that's when things got rolling and he went into rehab and things got better. >> i was born in 1983, moved to massapequa in '86. >> nassau county was the original suburb, really. >> five years ago, this was a vast checkerboard of potato

farms on new york's long island. >> it was an outgrowth of 1950s development. you had families that were moving out of brooklyn and queens and settling into nassau county. >> the south shore of long island at the time was just the quintessential suburban bedroom community, and they relished that. it was so quintessential, so much out of central casting, so to speak, that friends even referred to massapequa in reference to just a quiet, suburban community. >> so where's the party? >> it's out on the island. it's in massapequa. >> massapequa, it sounds like a magical place. tell me about massapequa. is it steeped in native american history? >> well, there is an arby's in the shape of a teepee. >> it was a cool time to grow up. >> the '90s were really happening. on the charts, whitney houston, m.c. hammer, michael jackson were cranking out the hits. on television, "cheers," "full house," "home improvement," all

of them ratings powerhouses. and then there was tabloid tv nearing the peak of its popularity. shows like "a current affair" and "hard copy." and let's not forget the daytime talk shows hosted by the likes of oprah winfrey, phil donahue, maury povich, and geraldo. but in suburban massapequa, new york, life in the buttafuoco household was comfortable and quiet. >> that neighborhood was the best. i found my nirvana. i was exactly where i wanted to be. >> massapequa was an awesome neighborhood. now looking back, it was such an ideal way to grow up. >> our parents were close by. our sisters and brothers were close by. the beach club was right next door. it was a great, great life. i loved it there. >> to grow up running around all summer with no shoes on and being able to ride your bike throughout the neighborhood and know all your neighbors and give

a wave, you know, and no one's door was locked. >> i think it's fair to say that my dreams were fulfilled at that time. >> what a beautiful family. >> growing up, my father was always the king, you know? i had him on the highest pedestal 'cause he was one of us. he was always getting the neighborhood kids to get into some mischief. he was always the fun dad. >> joey was definitely my number one child. for sure. there is a very famous story because half of the beach is involved in it. and joe was out in the boat, and we could see him coming back from, you know, the canal -- coming down the canal. and there was a patrol boat with the light on behind him, and we're like, "oh, shoot." like, "what now? what the heck did he do?" and the police boat is coming alongside. everybody's, like, looking and this chant came up from the beach club, everybody on the beach, "let joe go!" >> let joe go! let joe go!

>> well, needless to say, the guy let joe go. he didn't give him a ticket or anything. [ cheers and applause ] i had no clue about anything going on. nothing when i look back at the timeline. i look at my life and i think, "everything was fine, everything was good." >> 'cause it was always our family against the world. never, ever, ever, they never had a bad relationship to me. they had an ideal relationship. >> so there was no indication that this -- this little affair went on during that summer of 1991. no clue whatsoever that any of this went on until she knocked on my door. >> tonight, we begin with a mysterious shooting in the suburbs on a street in massapequa on long island. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1,

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it's so crazy to think that someone was just, you know, attacked you and tried to murder you right here. >> yeah, right? you know, looking at it all and seeing exactly the proximity and where it all happened. can you imagine the audacity of her to do that? >> right? i know. it's cool that we get to be here together and come back and be able to have some good memories here. >> mm-hmm. >> and not just all bad. you know? >> yeah. >> i do miss it, though. >> oh, yeah. >> but --

>> another life ago. >> yeah. >> that was a long, long, long time ago, and thank god i'm still here to talk about it. >> amen. >> right? it was the first day i'd let both the children ride their bicycles to school. >> it was a big day in my 9-year-old life. riding your bike to school was like you made it. and this was -- i was in third grade, so i was, like, boom, we're set. >> i remember looking outside, waiting for them all to go, to say, "have a good day at school and enjoy yourselves and be careful." >> and i was so excited. i'm like, "let's go. let's go." and then my brother was like, "wait, i want to go back." >> and i turned around, and my son came back in the house. and i turn around and said, "what's the matter, paul?" and he looked at me and goes, "i don't know. i don't know." i have a hard time telling this story. and i said, "what?" like, i was just, like, impatient with him. "well, what do you mean you don't know?

you have your school bag?" "yes." "you have your lunch?" "yes." "okay. well, go, go, go. they're all waiting for you." and he came back again, and he said, "i don't know. something's not right." >> i think he could sense something was wrong with that day. >> and i said, well, "whatever it is you can tell me about it later." and off he went. he knew something was gonna happen to me. so, i get my painting clothes on, and i went into the backyard to paint this bench. i'm doing my thing. that's when the doorbell rings. and i kind of could look over and see through the house and see this teenager outside in the front. and i started to walk through the house. and i go to the door and i said, "what's up?" and as i say, "what's up," i see directly behind her is a car, a guy in a car.

she says, "are you mrs. buttafuoco? i'm here to tell you that your husband is having an affair with my little sister." and i said, "your little sister? how old are you?" and she got a little indignant. she said, "i'm 19." "you're 19? how old's your little sister?" "she's 16." somewhere, a complete auto body t-shirt came out of her hand. she said, "i have proof. i found this in -- in my sister's bed when i was making it." so i'm kind of a smart ass, so i said, "you make your little sister's bed?" and she didn't like that at all. and in my head, i'm like, "what the hell did he do now?" i asked her her name. she said her name was anne marie. i asked her where she lived. she pointed in a direction and said a street and i said, "that street is in the other direction." now i'm knowing she's lying. she's starting to get nervous. i kind of said, "look, anne marie, i don't know what you want me to do about this."

and i believe i said -- because i was raised to be a good catholic girl -- "thanks for coming by." and with that, i turned my head, went for the door, and that was the end of my life as i knew it. ♪ ♪ why did love put a gun in my hand? ♪ ♪ why did love put a gun in my hand? ♪ ♪ why did love put a gun in ha hand? ♪ ♪ why did love, why did love put a gun in my hand? ♪ >> when the gun went off, the next-door neighbors heard the shot and came running, immediately called for help. >> i get a phone call from a neighbor to come home, there's an emergency.

i was like, oh, what happened now? >> i don't know what time, around noon. i was on my way to going to p.e. class, and somebody had to take me out of line, and said, "you have to get your stuff. you have to go." and i just remember looking to my brother and kind of looking at my aunt and just getting a sense of, like, something's up. >> i'm only eight miles, it only took 15 minutes to get there, and i'll never forget that. that was quite a scene. they had everything roped off. police and people and -- it's like stuff you see on tv, you know, but this is real. >> and they had a helicopter that came and landed on the beach right by their house. >> i remember looking at that helicopter on the beach. there was a gurney on the side of it, and i saw mary jo's feet. i bee-lined for that helicopter. so the police came after me, and one guy tried to tackle me. wasn't having him, and then the second and the third guy, wasn't having them.

finally, they took me down and the helicopter took off. >> back in 1992, i was finishing up a year and a half internship at "newsday." the day of the shooting of mary jo buttafuoco, i was sent out to this location in massapequa on the south shore to get the scene stuff, do the door-knocking, see what's going on. it could have been just any other crime story. >> i didn't find out till i went to work, because i worked for a doctor from, like, 2:00 to 7:00. and the ladies were like -- the secretary's like, "the doctor wants to see you." and i'm like, "oh, brother." so, i go in his office, and he grabbed my hand -- and he said, "something happened to your sister, she was shot." and they took me to the hospital. one of the surgeons took myself, my mom and dad and joe into a

room and explained that she was shot. >> that bullet had gone 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. >> they told us, she's going to die. she'll be blind, paralyzed, deaf. they didn't -- he didn't know. they just knew she could die. and the surgeon said to my mother, "what do you want to do?" and joe goes to my mother, "what do we do, mom?" and she said, "let's go for it," meaning, let's have her have surgery. >> mary jo was in surgery for seven hours. they were never able to remove the bullet. it was just too precarious. >> i don't know how long it was. next day, day after that. that i woke up -- you know, i opened my eyes, and there was bright lights. >> mary jo woke up and my mother hit the floor, went down on her knees, and said, "thank you, jesus." >> i looked at this nurse and

she was yelling at me, "mary jo! mary jo! you've been shot. you're in the hospital. you're gonna be okay." and i looked at her. and it was all fuzzy. like i said, just like in the movies. >> i asked her, "who did this to you?" and she started to -- she couldn't speak because she had all the hoses and tubes and everything, but she was trying to write. >> and i just wrote down what i remembered. i wrote, "19-year-old girl. anne marie." and the biggest clue of all was i wrote down the complete auto body t-shirt. >> and the beautiful thing about that t-shirt was that was the very, very first t-shirt of a new run with a new design on it. i said, "i only gave one t-shirt to elliot fisher." that's how that t-shirt came to be such an important piece of evidence. >> joey buttafuoco talks to the cops. the cops learn that elliott fisher has a daughter named amy, and quickly this puzzle comes together. >> and that was the beginning of the insanity. >> did you do it?

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tonight, a mysterious shooting in the suburbs. a woman was shot in the head in front of her house. no suspect, no motive so far. >> both neighbors and investigators are asking themselves the same question -- why? why this neighborhood? why this house? why would anyone want to kill mary jo buttafuoco? >> the first time we heard that a woman had been shot on the doorstep of her suburban house, i think we all thought that it that was a home invasion. >> it happened yesterday in broad daylight. there were no screams, no evidence of a struggle. >> the next day in the paper, "newsday," the "post," you know, woman gets shot in massapequa. it was all over the place on the news. >> tonight, the wife, mary jo buttafuoco, is in critical condition at nassau county medical center. >> this kind of thing doesn't happen to people like her. she -- she's the all-american mother and woman and wife. >> the detectives didn't know what it was.

the neighbors didn't know what it was. reporters had no idea what it was about. >> certainly a mystery at this point. >> even before people knew who the perpetrator was, it was a big story. >> i was in the hospital, and i don't know how it happened or when it happened, but somehow a picture of her was brought to me. i said, that's her. that kid did it. she told me her name was anne marie. and they're saying, "well, her name is amy fisher." and joe said, "she's a customer. i know her father. i've done work on her car." >> joey insists he only knew that it was amy and the only reason he knew it was because of the t-shirt. >> who could have imagined that a 17-year-old high school student would be the person who shot mary jo buttafuoco? >> so, what happened was the police brought joey home, and there were no cell phones back in the day, and they wanted joey to call amy fisher from our home phone. their idea was to lure her out

of the house. >> what cops will tend to do is that they will try to get the person they want to arrest away from their comfort zone, put them into the location where the cops have the control. >> i said, what do you want me to say to her? and they told me, "have you seen the news? my wife's been shot, and i want to talk to you." >> they told joe to say, "meet me somewhere. come out and meet me. i want to talk to you." >> after they got off the phone, she got in her car and she drove off and within just a few minutes, the police sirens pulled her over and that was it. she was arrested. >> the police were so excited 'cause they got her. and they had a live witness and, thank god, mary jo lived. >> they brought her into police headquarters at nassau county. she's 17 years old. they've taken her in for questioning. she's denying, she's lying, she's doing whatever she did.

she sat there for 12 hours, they had her in police custody. >> so at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, elliot and rose fisher are sitting at the kitchen table frantic because their daughter's been out all night and they have no idea where she was, and the phone rang. and it was the detective saying, better get a lawyer, your daughter's been arrested. >> did you do it? >> and then there was the perp walk. this little kid is walked in handcuffs to a police car with long hair almost down to her waist and cutoff jeans and a t-shirt. people were astounded. who is this kid? >> were you in love with her husband? >> the whole story, i think, shifted at that moment. it was the perp walk of amy fisher that launched that story. >> and then we get one of the greatest news headlines ever written. amy fisher is dubbed "the long island lolita." >> she is accused of an affair

with a married man more than twice her age. she is in jail on charges of trying to kill his wife and she is only 17 years old. but who is amy fisher? >> amy fisher was born august 21st, 1974. she was the only child of rose and elliott fisher. her mother was catholic. her father was jewish. her parents were middle class. they had a nice home in merrick, long island. >> amy elizabeth fisher was known by teachers and administrators as a student with average course load and below average grades. >> she had a beeper back then before cell phones, and once she was 16, they got her a car. so she was really indulged. >> elliot fisher was amy fisher's father. he came into our shop first, and then he shortly brought his daughter amy in. elliot would say to me, "if amy ever has an accident, just take care of it. send me the bill." and that's what we did. so she started smashing mirrors and hitting the curbs, and she did smash that car a lot.

>> and that was the very first time she met joey. there was sort of banter. joey's got a big personality. and at that point, that's when the relationship started to build. >> 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 had sex with her in her childhood bedroom. >> with amy coming in all of the time, that relationship went where it went and it was over real fast but with bad results. >> when they begin their romantic involvement, she's 16 years old, he's 36 at the time. she was still considered a minor under new york state law. >> my relationship with amy was inappropriate, and that's as far as i'm gonna go with that. >> she was crazy about him. you're talking about a 16-year-old girl who was infatuated by a guy who was flashy. had a lot of money to spend, took her to nice places. >> you could say she was naive,

but you also have to remember that she was only 16 years old. and once she met joey, everything really spiraled downhill quickly. >> i remember getting home from the hospital. every news van in the united states of america came and parked in front of my house, on the side of the house. reporters coming out of the woodwork. >> the privacy was gone. it was absolutely gone, and that was rough. >> i'm alive, but i lost a lot of weight. i weighed like 89 pounds. i could hardly walk 'cause my equilibrium was thrown off. >> she feels lousy. i thank god she feels anything, okay? >> at 9 years old, my mom is my superhero, and to see her laid out like this -- half of her face is drooping and half of her head is shaved. you know, my big, strong, awesome mom is now frail and swollen. it was insanity. >> you just want things to be normal and comfortable, and the media circus just went wild.

>> there's nothing you want to say? >> not at this time. >> okay, will there be something in the future? >> i imagine there will be. >> the story was an attempted murder case for, like, two or three days, and then after that, the motive for the shooting took over that story. >> she's charged with shooting her lover's wife. >> a long island teenager drawn to an older man, a married man. police say it was a secret affair that went from passion to rage. >> it wasn't about the shooting anymore. it was about amy and joey. >> was she an innocent led astray by an older man, or was she the long island lolita? >> did you know she was obsessed with you? >> no. >> you never did anything to lead her on? >> absolutely not. never. >> joey is a fabulous liar. i did not realize that then. i didn't realize how much he

manipulated me and how much he lied to me, but he did. >> she's the daughter of a customer. mr. fisher's daughter, and that's all she is to me. >> once she got arrested, she claims it was an accident. amy's version of events was that we struggled and fought over the gun and the gun accidentally went off. there were only two people on that step that day, me and her. she was there to kill me. >> detectives learned that amy fisher had recruited a cast of characters to work with her. >> two men have come forward tonight saying amy fisher approached them months ago begging them to help her kill mary jo buttafuoco. this all-new ariya is an elegant ev. yeah, with 389 horsepower. ♪ and all-wheel drive. ♪ it's beautiful. it's a beast. it's electric. with an edge.

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♪ it happened yesterday at about 12:00 noon in broad daylight. >> police say fisher walked up to the buttafuoco home and shot mary jo once in the head. amy was identified when mary jo awoke from her coma and told

police what happened. >> who is this kid? how did she get a gun? why did she shoot mary jo buttafuoco? >> amy fisher, the villain. dun dun dun. well, i guess there's a few villains in this story, but she's definitely one of them. >> detectives learned that amy fisher had recruited a cast of characters to work with her. >> young men started coming out of the woodwork, and they said she wanted me to kill that lady. >> towards the end of may, joseph sleeman had called. and said that his son had some information about the amy fisher case. steven, he was 21 at the time, he was a waiter, but he acted more like a teenager. he really struck me as naïve. >> i met amy through a friend of mine, chris drellos. we both worked in the restaurant together. >> chris drellos was amy's friend from high school.

>> she told him that she was dating an older man and that she was in love with this guy and that she wanted to get the wife out of the way, wanted to kill the wife. and chris apparently was having no part of that. and my words, he dumped her on steve. >> because he knew that stephen had a rifle and so he connected them. >> chris kind of tells steve, "look, if you placate her and tell her you're going along with this, you'll be able to have sex with her." >> she wanted me to shoot mary jo, and i said yeah. amy would pay me to sit and watch the house. i knew exactly when mary jo's kids got on the bus, what time they came home from school, i knew where she went grocery shopping. >> so about seven months before she actually shot mary jo, she went to the house with stephen sleeman. >> the day we went to the house, i was to the right in the bushes. i had my rifle. amy said, "when she comes out, >>t was the day after

halloween. this idiot kid comes to my house. and she says, "hi. i'm from massapequa high school." amy was telling mary jo that she was selling candy for charity. >> so then i was like, "honey, i got a house full of candy right now." and she was, like, "oh, please. i only have these three left. would you --" >> amy is kind of gesturing to steve, you know, take the shot. >> i couldn't get a clear shot. >> i said, "look, massapequa high school, that's my alma mater. come on in." i let her in the house. i went to get my wallet, pulled out a dollar bill. "thank you, i'll take the candy, walk away, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye." and out the door she went. i close the door, i turn around, i take the candy bar and i turn it over, and it says, "grocery. 59 cents" on it. it was a candy bar from -- from the grocery store. and i said, "son of a [ bleep ] she just ripped me off for a buck." >> amy fisher comes to the car a few minutes later, just rip-roaring mad, cursing him out. >> i said, "this is crazy, i'm not gonna go through with this." >> and she went rattling off that she doesn't really need him. "just get me a gun. i'll do it myself if i have to." >> stephen sleeman was very significant because it basically showed that there was

premeditation. >> this is no longer an accidental shooting, this is attempted murder, plain and simple. my head was already spinning, like, i can't believe he hasn't been arrested yet. "you were just gonna walk into a police station and tell them this?" "yeah." i go, "you never would have walked out." >> bruce parnell comes to the assistant district attorney fred klein, knowing that amy fisher is the target here. he's doing what any good lawyer would do, which is to say, we'll help you, but i need to make sure my client has immunity from any prosecution in connection with this case. >> so fred came. it was a combination of high-stakes chess, high-stakes poker, and rolling the dice. >> the d.a.'s office grants sleeman immunity in the morning. >> and then the next day, things got crazy. the press is everywhere. >> there is even a new allegation that she tried to

hire a hit man. >> it was like a circus. i was followed everywhere. my life was just turned totally upside down. >> then that friend, chris drellos, he comes forward after sleeman to say that amy had tried to recruit him, in fact, into the crime. >> two men have come forward tonight saying amy fisher approached them months ago, begging them to help her kill mary jo buttafuoco. >> when those two guys came forward, that was the lynchpin. 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 home, recuperating, recovering, and the lead detective on the case called me. and he said, "mary jo, i want you to tell me if you remember somebody coming to your house and selling you candy a few months ago."

the blood drained out of my face. i thought, "how does he know this?" and he said, "that was amy fisher." and i went, "what?" now it's becoming, oh, my god, this is not just this crazy kid shot this woman. this is a planned assassination attempt. i was sick. i couldn't believe that, like, somebody actually stalked me, hired other people to kill me, and then when that didn't work, she did it herself. >> police say they expect to make at least one more arrest in this case, and that could very well be the man who was seen driving amy fisher to the buttafuocos' home. >> on june 11th, less than one month after the shooting of mary jo, peter guagenti is arrested by police and charged as amy fisher's accomplice. >> amy had only met peter guagenti about a week before the shooting. she went with some friends to

brooklyn and amy was introduced to peter and she talked to him right away about getting ahold of a gun and offered him $800. so on may 19th, amy went to the nurse and said she wasn't feeling well. amy got her pass to be able to leave school, and peter guagenti was waiting. he was driving a thunderbird. they switched the license plate, and amy got in his car and then he handed her the .25 caliber titan. with peter waiting in the car, amy went up and rang the doorbell. >> peter is identified through his car, which neighbors saw at the house the day of the shooting. ultimately peter was charged with criminal sale of a weapon. he cops a deal with the d.a.'s office, agrees to cooperate with the prosecution against amy fisher and for that receives a reduced jail sentence of just four months. >> four months in jail.

off he went. nothing. he got the sweetest deal of a lifetime. that was the end of peter guagenti. >> she always gave me money and i would say, how did you get it? she goes, "i'm an escort." i said, "what's that?" >> i got a call from this guy who says he says he has a sex tape of amy fisher and she was a prostitute. and i said, "are you kidding? send a car for him, get him in here." yeah, everything's taken care of. -hey, jamie. -oh, what am i up to? just visiting a special secret client. i can't say who it is, but let's just say she bundled her dream house and her dream car for round-the-clock protection with progressive. oh. she has another house in malibu. she's been an astronaut, an architect, a ceo. we're in front of her house, dude. i'd love to tell you who her boyfriend is, but i don't think i "ken." i'd love to tell you, but i don't think i -- "barbie" in theaters now.

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amy elizabeth fisher was known by teachers -- >> it was a secret affair that went from passion to rage. >> a 16-year old shows up at a door, a wife opens the door, and she shoots her in the face? what? >> so, amy's lawyers were trying to present her as this, you know, frightened high school senior who was manipulated by this older man. and yet, every single day, there was a new bombshell coming out. >> investigators looking into a possible link between fisher and a baldwin escort service say she constantly wore a beeper, even in school. >> so one of the bombshells was that amy had worked for an escort service. >> she always gave me money, whatever i needed, and i would say, "oh, how'd you get it?" she goes, "i'm an escort." i said, "what's that?"

you know, and she says, "i go on dates with guys for -- it's $100 an hour." so she said, "money's no object." >> she didn't act like a 17-year-old. when a girl at that age becomes that promiscuous at 17, there's something wrong there. >> as if amy fisher's reputation couldn't get damaged and sullied any more after everything that had been revealed, a 29-year-old salesman from levittown calls "a current affair" and he has a tape to sell. >> welcome to "a current affair." >> "a current affair" would cover sex, murder, and really offbeat stuff. >> this ghost photographer never knows what will develop. >> it was tabloid tv. that's what it was. somebody on the news desk came to me and said, "i just got a call from this guy who says he has a sex tape of amy fisher. do we want to talk to him?" and i said, "are you kidding?" we sent a car for him. get him in here. >> one of her clients had sex with amy three times, he said, and on one of the occasions, he actually set up a hidden camera and taped his encounter with

amy. >> the tape was every bit what he said it was, you know? they were negotiating a price for sex and then they turned the lights off and they were having sex. amy was saying all kinds of crazy things. >> don't talk business. it's about pleasure. i don't like to talk business and pleasure at the same time. >> it really sent everybody into overdrive. so i don't think anybody saw amy as a poor, little innocent. >> that knocked me for a loop. even though she shot a woman in the head, you still want to paint a sympathetic picture of her. >> the fisher story, i would say it ranks with the bobbitt story, right up there. same kind of stuff. i mean, when you have sex and criminal activity, when it comes to the tabloid news world, you can't ask for anything more. >> tabloid tv producers descended on massapequa with limousines, bouquets of flowers, gift certificates, fistfuls of $50 bills. it was a nightmare.

>> my mission was to try and stay away from the circus atmosphere that was surrounding the case, but that was a little difficult to do. >> people couldn't get enough of it. i mean, they were talking about it everywhere. from the diners on the south shore to the yacht clubs on the north shore. you'd get on the train and everybody had the daily news, "long island lolita." it was an obsession. >> as i'm trying to recover from this horrible, egregious injury that i had, what happens is this phenomenon starts to happen. it's not about me anymore. it's not about the person who got shot and assassinated on the front of her own home. it becomes about joey and amy. >> and it did, it took on a life of its own. 'cause that's what the public was seeing. and that's what they wanted. and that's what the media wanted. did i play into that? yes, i did. of course i did. >> about three weeks after mary jo was shot, howard stern is talking about the case and all of a sudden he gets a phone call. and who is it? it's joey buttafuoco. >> there was a guest on.

i mean, this guy is saying he's my pool man, and he would see amy and me in the backyard all the time by the pool, having lunch, this and that. and i was like, you know what? i don't have a pool. >> howard's saying, "come on, you know, you were having an affair." and joey saying, "no, absolutely not." >> joe was adamant. he screamed it from the rooftops, he had nothing to do with her sexually, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. >> to almost everyone else, it seemed that it was obvious that joey was lying about his affair with amy fisher, but mary jo believed his denials and no one really could understand why. >> i know i did go home and ask joe a million times, "did you have sex with her?" and a million times he denied it. and a million times he swore to me on our children's lives. so i thought, he's got to be telling me the truth. >> i think if mary jo believed that joey wasn't having an affair, then i think it was natural that she was going to support him. >> my job now was not to recover

and try to get over this horrible injury. it was now to defend my husband. and i took that role on extremely well. i stand behind joey 100%. amy fisher is a liar. i was defending my family. this -- this person came to my house, interrupted my lovely life with my husband and my children and my home and everything. it's absolute hell on earth. >> amy fisher appeared on "inside edition" with nancy glass, and she made a stunning accusation. >> joey told you to kill his wife? >> he told me, "just go up to the door, point a gun like this, and keep firing and walk away." >> i think we went to great extent, and i think successfully, to paint amy as a victim. we're investigating anything that he might have had to do or -- or responsibility for of the shooting of his wife. >> i kept maintaining, quite

forcefully, that it wasn't amy's idea. this was joey's motivation. >> so eric naiburg was coming out and throwing everything against the wall, every single thing he could throw against the wall that would damage me and my credibility. >> and a 17-year-old girl took him up on it. can you imagine that? she does all this for him? he leaves her hanging? >> just when i thought things couldn't get any crazier, oh, it did. oh, it did. estions. who do we belong to? who are our ancestors? i know we have them. oh my god, here it is. when i found that immigration record on ancestry®, it was amazing. everything was there. the u.s. was in dire need of nurses during world war ii. tía amalia as a nurse in el salvador decided to answer that call. it's a lot of excitement finding something new. i feel like a time traveler. claudia starts calling me. it's a party every time. ♪ coarse hair it's a thin skinry time.

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there were only two people on that step that day, me and her. she was there to kill me. ♪ >> and she shoots her in the face? what? >> it was the perp walk of amy fisher that launched that story. >> amy fisher. the villain. >> joey buttafuoco.

>> it was like a freaking cartoon i was living in. >> i was a housewife from long island, now i'm national news. >> we always loved each other. >> yeah, we did. >> that [ bleep ] reunion. you're gallivanting around the streets of new york with the woman who tried to murder my mother? >> she goes online and she has sex with herself. i'm telling you way too much ♪ why did love put a gun in my hand? ♪ >> now, you may think this is an open and shut case. amy came to my house, she shot my mother in the face, guilty as charged, boom. but not so much. >> amy fisher was composed when she walked into court, but within minutes she was nearly in tears. >> amy fisher was booked, and her bail was set at $2 million, which was exorbitantly high for that time. >> a lot of people questioned

why that high a bail for a first-time offender at her age, but this was a very serious crime, a "b" felony, carried up to 25 years at the time in prison. >> that was a big number. so she had to figure out, and her lawyer had to figure out, “what can we possibly do to get her out?” >> most people post their assets to get bail. amy didn't have a $100,000 but she had a story that was worth $2 million to somebody. >> prosecutor fred klein angrily suggested that both he and the judge had been duped. >> so her attorney, eric naiburg, actually met with people to sell her life story to raise bail money, and it worked. >> no mention at all was made about a production company being involved. >> klein insisted he might never have approved the bail arrangement if he'd known that the premium on that bond was paid in part by a movie company. >> there was nothing illegal or improper about the way she was released. in fact, it was kind of creative. >> the son of sam laws had been

enacted to prevent people either under indictment or convicted criminals from benefiting from telling their stories. that law had been declared unconstitutional some months before this case, so she was able to sell her story. >> there's no way to deny what happened. amy is on the doorstep. you have a very, very credible witness that knows who she is, claims that she takes a gun out, and you have a gunshot wound. so you're looking now to put something together that's going to impress the prosecution, which is what i did. and one of the things i had to work with was their dislike for mr. buttafuoco. >> police wanted to see it their way. they wanted to get big, bad joey. he was the big cheese here. let's get the big one. >> they wanted to prosecute the guy, and the only way they could do it is through amy. >> so behind my back, they cut out a plea deal, and i remember when they called me into the district attorney, fred klein. he sat me down and said, "you know, mary jo, we've decided to

let amy take a plea." i almost jumped across the desk and killed him right there. i was furious, furious. >> this morning, as expected, amy fisher pleaded guilty to assault charges, reduced charges down from attempted murder. >> from the prosecutor's perspective, they were getting a guilty plea on a crime that had the same sentencing range as the one they were gonna charge her with anyway. they get her to plead guilty. from the prosecutor's perspective, that's a win. >> is there any question in your mind as to whether you wish to plead guilty? >> no, your honor. >> you know, this was not an assault. that was it. i had no say in anything. my family was furious, we were all furious. >> your honor, the truth is, i did something that was so awful, and i wish i could take it back. it's also the truth, i had an affair with a married man. >> it was so tense in that courtroom because that was the first time the two of them had come face-to-face since they

were face-to-face on mary jo's doorstep. think about mary jo buttafuoco at that point. the bullet is still lodged in her neck. she's partially disfigured, partially paralyzed, and now amy fisher is saying, “i had an affair with joey.” >> it's also the truth that joey knew of my intentions towards his wife and he encouraged me. these things, your honor, they are all true. they are facts. >> yeah, that twisted the knife. it was the last thing she wanted to hear. >> mary jo buttafuoco read to the judge a letter from her 9-year old daughter, jessica. >> so this is an excerpt from a letter that i had written to the judge for amy's sentencing. my mom read it out loud in the court. “please make amy fisher stay in jail for a very long time so she can't hurt my mom again. >> my daddy, brother, paul, and i love her very much. thank you. sincerely, jessica buttafuoco.

>> to some people, you have become a media celebrity, but to this court, you are no celebrity. in the eyes of this court, you are a tragedy and disgrace. >> amy received a sentence, 5 to 15, which means she would be eligible for parole after 5 years. >> amy fisher was led away in handcuffs. mary jo buttafuoco rushed from the courtroom, angry but relieved. >> it was a sensational end to what has been a sensational story. >> the d.a. clearly wanted to prosecute joey buttafuoco, at the least for statutory rape, but they had issues. amy fisher wasn't a particularly credible witness. mary jo buttafuoco, the victim, didn't want her husband prosecuted, and so ultimately they abandoned the investigation. >> amy fisher is a liar and has zero credibility. >> you know, all these accusations that came out that i did this, i planned the murder, i put her up to it was ridiculous.

they spent so much money on me. they did, and they came up with nothing. >> tonight, the amy fisher criminal case is officially closed, and joseph buttafuoco is off the hook. >> at this time, i would just like to thank the district attorney's office for their decision in this case. >> so, begrudgingly, they dropped the case against him. >> i remember, like, the relief. like, "thank god. thank god it's over.” and it was just the beginning, because my husband has a big mouth. >> lights, camera, action. joey loves that, loves it. >> and he decided with his lawyer, his idiot lawyer, that they were gonna go on the "let's clear joey's name" tour. >> you would think that after a huge tragedy like this you would want to maintain a low profile, but, no, that didn't happen. ha♪ ♪ but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪

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you know, after amy was sentenced, i was ready to get back to my normal life, but the world had other plans.

>> so the three movies were "amy fisher: my story," which based on my book. and then "casualties of love," and that one starred alyssa milano as amy. the third movie was abc's version, "the amy fisher story." >> whatever amy wants, amy gets. >> and that one starred drew barrymore. >> there were three made-for-tv movies? the story kept cloning itself. >> each day got crazier and crazier. i couldn't believe this. you know, a month earlier, i'm a housewife from long island, and now i'm national news. >> when i first went on in 1991, oh, my gosh, there had to be seven or eight daytime talk shows. we had phil donahue, oprah, geraldo rivera, joan rivers, jenny jones. you had myself. >> many, many of these shows were courting us.

>> it was a staple of television, and we all co-existed, because there was enough of an audience, and yet at the same time, we were very competitive. >> donahue calls, promising the world. "come on, tell us your story. tell us your side, joey." right? i thought, "okay, this is a good chance for me to tell my side." >> my dad loved it, and i think my mom hated it but went along with it 'cause she didn't know any better, and she didn't know she could say no. >> so, we get on donahue and it started out not so great, and it got real bad real fast. >> from a woman to a woman, i just want to say, wake up. >> and it was an ambush. it was an absolute ambush. i sat there like a deer in the headlights. >> if it looks like a snake, talks like a snake, and walks like a snake, mary jo -- >> it was degrading. it was embarrassing. it was just a nightmare.

six months after i've got a bullet in my head, i'm -- i'm being lambasted because i'm sticking with my husband and he's a liar. >> i'm not pretending to be a tough guy, but i wanted to punch him right in his nose. >> one of the biggest regrets of my life is that i did not get up and tell phil donahue to go [ bleep ] himself. >> joey's lawyer didn't think that was enough. he says, "now we gotta go on larry king." i've got a bullet in my head. i'm -- i'm sick as a dog. i'm on all kinds of medications for anxiety and pain and my lawyer is yelling at me, "you've got to do this. you've got to do this." >> nobody badgers mary jo into doing anything. she does whatever her mind tells her to do. >> joey went off on the "clear joey's name" tour. >> she's the daughter of a customer, mr. fisher's daughter, and that's all she is to me." >> and he wound up getting himself indicted. >> had joey, when he was being represented by kornberg, not

opened his mouth, he never would have been arrested. >> he was constantly goading the media and making statements to the point where people were coming forward. >> the person that ended up coming forward was an employee at the auto body shop, and he came forward on "geraldo." >> did he ever mention a young lady by the name of amy fisher to you, george? >> he told me that he made love to her several times. when i asked how old she was, he admitted that she was 16 years old. >> with all of this information coming out and the witness coming forward, the d.a.'s hand is forced to charge joey with statutory rape. >> so they came up with a 19-count indictment against him. >> the buttafuoco indictment charges him with 6 counts of statutory rape, 12 counts of sodomy, and a single count of endangering the welfare of a child. >> i don't think the public would've been satisfied. after a while, they had to charge joey. it would've looked like a mockery if they hadn't.

>> i went to dominic and i said, "dominic, i just want to end this. i need to end this." he says, "let me see what i can do." so he met with the judge, and he met with everybody and made a deal. >> on new york's long island today, another sad chapter in the story of amy fisher and her onetime lover, joey buttafuoco. he was in court today to be sentenced for statutory rape, having sex with someone under the legal age. >> i will never forget. it was like a roar, like this, like -- here he is kind of thing? it was an odd noise. like, people were cheering for him in a weird way. >> when this relationship began, i was not just a 16-year-old teenager taken to bed by a man more than twice my age. i was a 16-year-old teenager shown a world i was not ready for. >> you can save your face or you can save your butt, but you can't save 'em both at the same time. so what do you do? in the beginning, i saved my face. my butt was on that grill for a long time, and then i just surrendered to it. >> the judge threw the book at joey buttafuoco today, sentencing him to the maximum allowable under the plea bargain. six months in jail, a

$5,000 fine, and five years' probation. >> i'm glad i took the plea because i would rather be here dealing with this than inside trying to get out. >> i did something i never thought i would have to do in my entire life, and that was go visit my husband in prison, and i took my children with me. i wanted them to see their father. >> well, the first time my dad went to jail, it was pretty surreal. what sticks out the most now is -- and it makes me kind of sad -- i drew a lot of pictures. i colored a lot of coloring books so he could post it on his wall, you know, and that's just messed up. that's a messed up exchange between a father and daughter to have to do. >> we made it through the first bout of jail. >> buttafuoco was released from the nassau county jail this morning after he served four months for the statutory rape of amy fisher. >> i did what i had to do to end it. i did my time and i'm going home to my family. i'm going home. >> we were home, and i thought,

"okay, we --" each week i would think, "okay, we made it. we made it, we made it, we made it." and now hollywood comes calling. >> my dad, he's always getting into mischief. mischief seems to always get into him. things would calm down for a little bit, and then, you know, joey would do something. another shoe would drop. >> joe was asked to come out to california and he got arrested for soliciting a hooker. >> well, he gets arrested for driving up to a prostitute in front of an ice cream store, which caused a violation of probation. >> comes home again. it wasn't him. it didn't happen this way. he didn't give her the money, whatever. you know, it was the same [ bleep ] that i heard over and over again. he was on probation for the statutory rape. he's gonna go back to jail. that was the end of the marriage, right then and there. but i went into a spiral of depression, and i was very suicidal. then i thought of the kids, and i thought, "well, i'm not

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♪ this is now four years, four years of this hell and it hasn't stopped. i went into a spiral of a depression, and i was very suicidal at that point. it was really scary. i walked into my medicine cabinet and i saw all those pills, and i said to myself, "i could just take these all right now, right now, and be done with this." but then i thought of the kids, and i thought, "well, i'm not

leaving them with this craziness." so then i thought, i'll put them in the car and i'll put the vacuum hose, and i will turn the car on and i will asphyxiate the three of us. you know, i'm just done. i've had it. i can't do this anymore. but then i thought, i couldn't do that to my kids. >> mary jo considered committing suicide and taking our children as well? i never knew that till just now. that's so sad. wow. i never knew that. but i can understand that. today, i can understand that. there's a lot of pressure and stress. >> for some reason, i was left

alive, but this is insane, god. what are you doing? you let me live for this? for this craziness to just continue year after year after year? >> life in new york was getting very difficult. our house became a tourist attraction. we couldn't go anywhere as a family without being recognized and/or tormented and accosted verbally by a lot of looky-loos. >> their privacy was lost. it was gone. and then that affected the business. and there was a decision that joe could not work there anymore. they had to leave. >> i said to mary jo, i'm going to california. i can't live here. i can't live on long island. >> you know, i look back and said, i should have said, "you know what? you leave and i'm stayin' here with the kids." but i wasn't in any mental or physical shape to do that. >> my family now is this larger-than-life thing.

so you can't be normal anymore, so what do you do? you move to los angeles and you join the circus, that's what you do. >> so, i was out in california. that's when i realized, "i've got a really bad drug problem." i couldn't function without them. there was no opioid crisis back then. and nobody said no to a lady with a bullet in her head. i started to need to get stronger. i knew, i can't do this. i'm not getting anywhere. >> mary jo calls me and she says to me, "i want to go to betty ford." i said, "go." she said, "i have no money." i said, "mary jo, i got you $3 million. she says, "well, we don't have it." joey lost it in some bad investment." it's like, okay. call up betty ford on a conference line. here's my black american express card. "all right, mary jo?"

she says "you're gonna do that for me?" and i said, "why not?" >> i will be forever grateful to dominic barbara. he gave me the gift of sobriety by getting me into the betty ford center. and it was there i started to learn that i had anger that i wasn't even really aware of that i had. that's what drove the pills and the alcohol and the anger, because i hated her. and it festered. >> i only saw the rage and anger towards amy, but she misplaced the anger. her anger should've been joey. >> so between physically getting off the medication and then the counseling that i got, it made me stronger. it 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."

>> in 1998, amy fisher's mother reached out to me. they were five years into the sentence, and the d.a.'s office recommended that she not be released on parole. in other words, parole was denied. >> fred klein said to me at that time that he would make a favorable recommendation for parole at the five, which he reneged on. i never had it in writing. >> assistant district attorney fred klein said he never made that deal. >> i knew that the plea wouldn't get vacated unless mary jo buttafuoco went along with that. >> amy was looking for forgiveness, 'cause her mother said to me, "what do i have to do to get mary jo to help us?" "try a letter," and the letter was written. >> "i'm not sure if you'll ever

believe that i'm sorry for what i did to you, but i am. that anger wasn't for you, and i know now what i did to you was the worst thing one human being can do to another." >> mary jo was critical to getting amy out early. >> at the time, i wanted to believe that she had learned her lesson. >> amy fisher has been granted parole after spending nearly seven years in prison for shooting mary jo buttafuoco. >> she's full of [ bleep ]. in 27 years, she hasn't done one thing, not one thing, to rectify that to any of us. and i realize now this was all just a ploy to get out on parole. >> our lives had become ridiculous. it was nothing normal. >> it was like a freaking cartoon i was living in, it was insane. i was derailed. you know, if it wasn't drugs, it would be women, you know?

that's all i can really say about that. >> i wasn't in love with him anymore. it was this child that just wouldn't grow up. and all the reasons that kept me in that marriage were gone. i was sober, and our children were adults. >> it just went in a different direction. >> and so i told him, "i think we should separate," and he didn't argue with me. >> i was devastated. devastated. it was like a kick to my stomach. i think i got really mad. it's like, after all we've been through, now y'all are giving up? you know, it's us against the world, and now this is falling apart? so now what? >> so mary jo and joey divorce. amy fisher gets married and has a family, so just when you think this is finally over, joey

buttafuoco finds a way that he thinks he's going to be able to cash in on the scandal that almost killed his wife on "the insider. ". >> you guys wanna pose for us? >> it had every impropriety imaginable. sex, violence, you name it. >> and i just remember being so pissed. (man) what if my type 2 diabetes takes over? (woman) what if all i do isn't enough? or what if i can do diabetes differently? (avo) now you can with once-weekly mounjaro. mounjaro helps your body regulate blood sugar, and mounjaro can help decrease how much food you eat. 3 out of 4 people reached an a1c of less than 7%. plus people taking mounjaro lost up to 25 pounds. mounjaro is not for people with type 1 diabetes or children.

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halloween time is back with spook-tacular experiences in disneyland and disney california adventure parks! [laughter] after the shooting, there was zero degree of normalcy. that's all i wanted. all i wanted was to be normal, but it was a rough, rough time. >> they were good kids. you know, they had problems and issues from all of this. >> i was thinking straight as i could given the moment and given everything that was going on. but for my children, it wasn't easy for them either.

they were at that age of hanging out with their friends, and wanting to drink and smoke, and get into whatever they needed to get into. >> and so i -- i got big into cocaine because it made me feel like the queen. and i experienced eating disorders from it. i suffer from alcoholism. >> a lot of it was suppressed. it was all this hiding and everything's fine and i'm terrific. and deep down, things weren't terrific. and it all stemmed from her mom getting shot, and seeing how people portrayed her mom and dad. >> my friends at “entertainment tonight” and “insider” brought me aboard. and sometimes i do these reuniting shows. the confrontation that has been building for 15 years. >> she destroyed everything in our lives. >> he took my childhood. >> and got into this with buttafuoco. >> so, yeah. i cashed in, i cashed out, and i sold out. >> it had premeditation. it had obsession. it had love.

it had craziness. >> he screwed me over when i was a teenager. >> she took away my children's childhood. >> it had every impropriety imaginable all rolled into one beautiful new york story. >> joey buttafuoco finds a new way to try to cash in on the scandal that almost killed his wife. >> amy fisher, joey buttafuoco, face-to-face. >> we did two more “e.t.” and “insider” specials. david krieff was instrumental in putting these deals together. and i 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. >> they deserve money. i don't say they don't. everybody deserves to get paid. >> everybody's in it for the money. you're doing a television show on this period of time. you're looking for good ratings. if it takes some people to paper a product with money, you're gonna do it. >> i was made an offer that i couldn't refuse. >> i couldn't work anywhere. i couldn't even work at my own family business. how was i gonna support my

family? how am i gonna feed those little birds, right? i turned that into a business. >> i got shot in the head, she did it, and he had something to do with it too. >> it was explosive. it was riveting in the room. so i knew it was gonna be amazing tv. >> i was okay at that point sitting in the room with them, but it turned into a fiasco because joey started screaming and yelling at her, and he stormed off the set. >> i don't sleep with children. i don't have sex with children. i didn't sleep with a 16-year-old. >> you did with me. >> i'm done, and god bless everybody. god bless you. >> you have no remorse. >> mm-hmm. i'm done. thank you, everybody. >> the show is meant to be a disaster, okay? it was meant to show a car accident, and that was the way we did it. >> she was the love of my life. the love of my life. >> it's a show. it's show business. we're taking a bad situation and we're turning it into entertainment. >> that [ bleep ] reunion. i didn't talk to my father for a solid year after that. [ bleep ] the producers who even

put that [ bleep ] together in the first place. it was a disaster, it was disgusting, and i completely was like, “listen, dad, my life is hard enough already. i'm in college. i'm trying to figure out who i am. i'm in the height of my drinking, drugging, and eating disorders.” >> i purposely didn't involve any of joey's kids. i tried my hardest to protect everybody involved. >> like many things in my life, i found out the hard way, on tv. >> we pushed the envelope pretty far on one of the last ones, where i pretended to be romantically involved. this is how insane i was, romantically involved with amy, which we were not. >> we always loved each other. >> we did. we did. >> yeah. >> and i just remember being so pissed. and just being like, are you [ bleep ] kidding me? you're gallivanting around the streets of new york with the woman who tried to murder my mother? >> every show is exploiting something. we're all taking something that happened and exploiting it. >> this is not a joke. this is not a paycheck i want.

no, no, this is not right. it's [ bleep ] up. this should not be happening. >> i think shows, whether they're tabloid shows or not, we never pause to reflect on the damage the story has done to so many people. >> and because of what amy fisher did to my mother, you know, she looks in the mirror every day and is reminded what happened to her because her face doesn't work. and i pitched to the oprah people. i said, “hey, can you guys help me give her a life lift?” so we went on “oprah.” >> so tell us specifically what physical damage you're still living with. >> the bullet went in the side of my head, right here by the ear. >> 15 years ago, i walked into the house and my wife had been watching "the oprah winfrey show." >> you go to brush your teeth every morning and i can't -- i can't hold my mouth -- i can't rinse my mouth and spit, i have to hold my mouth shut. >> she saw the segment about mary jo and how she had been suffering from facial paralysis. >> this is 37 years old, and this is 50. >> she's like, “this is someone you can help.

we got to somehow get you two connected.” we contacted oprah, and mary jo came in and saw me, and we connected, like, literally right away. >> my first meeting with dr. azzizadeh was fantastic. he said, i can do something for you, i can help this paralysis that you have, and i have ways to help bring your symmetry back to your face. >> the crux of the surgery was to really even out her face, suspend the drooping corner of her mouth to help her not have drooling as much and difficulty in her speech, and we proceeded in doing that. when we went to "the oprah winfrey show” for the reveal -- >> please welcome mary jo buttafuoco. >> it was pretty spectacular because she looked amazing. i think oprah thought she looked amazing. >> how do you like the results? >> i love the results. the bandages came off and i looked in the mirror, and i looked like the way i used to look. and i started to cry and my kids

started to cry. and it was just terrific. and i was just so happy, and so grateful. i was, like, on cloud nine for a long time. >> mary jo was finally putting the pain of her past behind her, but she didn't realize there were secrets yet to be revealed. including an earlier attempt on her life. >> there it is, there it is. >> we had a bullet come through the window. er having fun these days? family cookouts! [blowing] [dice roll] ♪ playing games! [party chatter] dancin in the par—! when low prices on supplies spark great ideas...

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you know, after 27 years, you would think that there's nothing new left to learn about this story. oh, but there is.

>> amy wanted me to shoot mary jo. eventually she asked me to shoot her, and i said, yeah. >> remember steven sleeman, amy fisher's onetime accomplice? he confessed to us on camera that a full six months before amy pulled the trigger, he had gone to the buttafuoco home. he saw mary jo in the window. he took aim, and he fired. >> the day before thanksgiving, it was a wednesday morning. i happened to be in my car and no one was in the house, had her lined up in my sights. and i put two shots through the window. >> there it is, there it is. >> he did that? that was an unknown. we had a bullet come through the window in, what, october, november? >> the day before thanksgiving. >> we thought it was just like random kids in the neighborhood up to mischief. >> but we had the police here. >> yeah, and you made a report and it went through that window right there. she was painting the kitchen. we never knew who it was. >> no one ever made the connection 'cause they didn't find the gun. >> it was a long-scope

.22 hunting rifle. i saw her shadow in the window. i didn't know if i hit her. i was just too scared. >> the bullet went through my front living room window and into the wall into the living room. >> and the only reason you weren't in the way of that bullet is because you went to the bathroom at that time. >> yeah. >> that was a miracle, it would have hit you. >> what do you know. >> it came as a complete surprise to mary jo and jessie, but 28 years later allowed them to finally put the puzzle together. >> if sleeman had admitted this years ago, even though he had immunity, he could still be prosecuted, because part of the immunity agreement is that he's gonna tell the truth and the whole truth. the only thing protecting him now is the statute of limitations, which is expired. >> i think people should know what really went on, and i am very sorry for mary jo and her family because of amy and i. >> this is all amy fisher. she planned it.

she had months in the making. she hired these people. >> amy, look over here. amy. >> and where's amy fisher now you may be asking yourself? well, she's got a ex-husband, and a few kids, and a tragic past behind her. >> look, there she is. >> she is choosing to be a webcam girl. you know, doing her thing on the internet. a cam girl is someone that goes online and shows off all their glory for a nominal fee. >> i don't know whether to feel bad for her or just be amazed at how [ bleep ] up one human being can be. this is what she's doing on tuesday night. she goes online and guys pay her money, or girls, and she has sex with herself. >> while amy fisher is still doing her thing online, joey says that he's finally getting help to put his own personal demons to rest. >> i wouldn't be here or be able to speak to you without having my coach, robert, help me through all of my issues.

and 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. >> if somebody was to say, "joey buttafuoco, in five years, you're gonna have a life coach and your life's gonna be dramatically better," i would've said, "great." you know, i'm not doing that. but i did. >> now we're finally in control of our own movie. >> mm-hmm. >> that nobody could ever expect maybe from a joey buttafuoco. >> so here we are again. joey is teaming up with reunion producer david krieff to try to turn buttafuoco into bucks. >> we came to writing a script for a movie about a very young joey buttafuoco. >> i'm excited about it, joe. >> the script is nice. >> i'm very excited about it. >> nice. >> i'm proud of my dad for telling his story, and i hope he's not using it to justify why he made so many poor decisions. >> i just remember saying, i just don't understand why he

does this. i don't get him. and my son said, "mom, he's always gonna be the way he is. he's a sociopath." and i'm like, paul, no. what? you know, that's a jeffrey dahmer. that's a ted bundy. your father's an idiot, i said, but he's not a sociopath. and that night i went on my computer and i wrote "traits of a sociopath." my eyes went, oh, my god. all of a sudden all of the years started to come into perspective for me. the beginning of my marriage, the middle of my marriage, and it all made some sort of sense. >> if you needed an angle to sell a book, couldn't you have done anything else except saying your husband's a sociopath? i don't know. i just -- i don't know what to say about that. >> i've just been fed b.s. by him my whole life. he knows it, i know it, the

american people know it. >> i am never going to recover from this, my son is never gonna recover from this, and my daughter will never recover. we will live with it and we will adjust to it, but we will never get over it. >> despite the fact this story just never seems to end, there is still one buttafuoco you haven't heard from, who refuses to stand in the spotlight. soaking, scrubbing...that's life. was life. now, powerwash gives me the power of an overnight soak in minutes. i'm sorry, minutes? with 3 cleaning boosters... not found in traditional dish soaps that help break down, loosen and lift away food and grease... so much faster! tougher mess? let the suds sit a few minutes before wiping. even cleans... the grill! thank you!

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learn how abbvie could help you save. i think the box i want is in the garage. where did i put it? says shoes. oh, here it is. well, it's funny because i was thinking, i was like, do i really want america to know that i'm moving in with my mother at 36 years old? and yeah! you know, this is something i've wanted for over a year now. about a year ago, my mom got diagnosed with some pretty scary health news. and god forbid she has a stroke or god forbid she falls and hits her head. 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. >> okay, unpacking. growing up for me, the performing arts was my outlet. when i was on stage, i was a character. i wasn't jessie buttafuoco. and it was so nice to get out of that reality. and so now, as an adult, i produce children's theater. and i run afterschool theater programs as a way to give back. because for me, that was such an important space to grow, to feel safe and protected. my friends call me showtime sometimes because i can be on. i can make you laugh and i can

make you happy and smile, but the real me inside is hurting, is in pain, and is just trying to figure out life. >> i feel guilty sometimes, because of what happened to me, because she seems to be lost a lot. my mothering skills, i wasn't available. i just wasn't as available as i would have liked to have been. >> what makes me the most sad to be honest is my complete inability to be able to love somebody because of all this. since i was 9 years old, all i've known is that sex and love and intimacy leads to bad things. it's extremely hard for me to even think that love exists. it's really hard to change because i've missed out on that. >> that's one of the walls that she has put up that i wish she could knock down.

>> i can't console jessica on that she feels she cannot be loved by others. i love my daughter more than anybody on the planet. >> you're just like your dad, but she's the best part of her dad. what i love in her father is what she is a lot of. >> for the first time in my whole life, just a few months ago, he said, "i understand it, that actions have consequences now." >> i love that jessica said that to me. >> and i go, "oh, now you get it?" okay. 62, okay. >> our son. he wouldn't touch any of this with a ten-foot pole. he doesn't go by his last name. i get it. that's fine. >> so you have jessie on the one hand, she wants to reclaim the buttafuoco name and wear it proudly. but on the other hand, her brother absolutely refuses to use it. >> i use my credit card, oh, any relation to joey? any relation? any relation? i hate that. just because someone has an opinion about it means i have to change my name? uh-uh.

i'm gonna change other people's opinions about it. >> jessica told me that she wants to rescue the name buttafuoco, and i give her a lot of credit for that. >> oh, i'm definitely on my journey. i know i'm probably gonna look at this interview in ten years and be like, "oh, honey." jessie is on her own journey now. she's getting her masters in clinical psychology. she wants to be a marriage and family therapist. that's our program for tonight. from all of us here on "20/20" and abc news, good night.

>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> a mystery in san jose after around 10:00 a.m. when san jose went to do a welfare check at an apartment complex. now neighbors -- now neighbors are asking questions and wondering if they are in danger. >>