Kriti Mehrotra
On May 19, 1992, in Long Island, New York, a whole family’s life was turned upside down, when Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot in the face by her husband’s, Joey Buttafuoco’s, teenage lover – the 17-year-old Amy Fisher. Fortunately, Mary Jo survived the attack, but to this day, the family struggles with dealing with all that they have suffered. Now, three decades after the infamous crime, ABC’s ’20/20′ is giving us an inside look with more details about them, in a two-hour special entitled ‘Growing Up Buttafuoco.’
Who Is Amy Fisher?
In the summer of 1991, when Amy Fisher was just 16, she met and fell in love with Joey Buttafuoco after meeting him at the auto body shop where he worked. Joey, then 36, was into the attention and affection that he was receiving, and thus, started a relationship with her, all the while being married. But, as time went on, Amy grew increasingly jealous of his wife. Therefore, in just a few months, she’d decided to kill Mary Jo. At first, she tried to hire two men to help her out, in November of 1991, but when that didn’t work, in May of 1992, she took matters into her own hands. She got a gun, knocked on the Buttafuoco family’s home, and fed Mary Jo a story about Joey having an affair with her non-existent little sister.
When Mary Jo thanked her for the information and was ready to head back inside, Amy shot her, just once, right in the head. Incredibly, the doctors were able to save Mary Jo’s life, and when she regained consciousness, Amy was identified, charged, and arrested for first-degree attempted murder. Soon, with the news and tabloids covering every aspect of this case, Amy Fisher became a household name, known as the “Long Island Lolita.” When the case went to court, her defense team tried to present her as a naive, high school senior who was seduced and manipulated by an older man, but that was not the case at all.
During her trial, it was revealed that Amy worked for an escort service and that a television show had aired a portion of the sex tape that one of her clients had secretly filmed and sold to it. In September of that same year, with all the evidence against her, Amy pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of first-degree aggravated assault. And, on December 2, 1992, she was convicted and sentenced to 15 years behind bars, being eligible for parole after five years. When the time came, Mary Jo consented that Amy should be given back her freedom. Thus, in 1999, after seven years, at the age of 24, Amy Fisher was released from prison.
Amy Fisher is Living With Her Loved Ones Now
After her release, Amy Fisher stayed in Long Island, New York, for a while and wrote newspaper columns for the Long Island Press. She then worked with the paper’s editor and co-wrote a book called ‘If I Knew Then,’ a memoir that details every aspect of the case and her life from her perspective. Along with this, Amy is also the co-author of another memoir titled ‘Amy Fisher: My Story.’ In 2003, she married Louis Bellara, a former NYPD officer, and subsequently began a career in the sex industry, which, apparently, he pushed for. The couple eventually moved to Palm Beach, Florida, when Amy’s career began, and together, they had a few children before ultimately getting divorced in 2015.
Amy Fisher’s videos led to her appearing as a guest during DJ sets or in strip clubs or even in TV shows, but in 2011, she announced that she would no longer be making adult films. According to the New York Daily News, Amy said that she earned nothing but embarrassment from her sex tapes, although, in the end, she did reach a six-figure settlement sum with the distributor of her films, Red Light District. In 2017, Amy revealed to the New York Post that she had moved back to Long Island and was now living in a home located less than an hour’s drive from where she’d shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco. The reason for her move was that she wanted to be close to her family and that both she and her children were outcasted in The Sunshine State.
Another New York Post article from the same year reported that Amy Fisher, now going by a different name because she wants to lead a private life, is filming “online peep shows” in her bedroom, in her Long Island home. In easier words, she now works as a cam girl. Talking about her career path now, she said, “This is what I have to do to make money.” Amy’s Twitter account has been inactive since 2016, but it is the only social media platform that we could positively find her on.
Read More: Is Amy Fisher Married? Did She and Joey Buttafuoco Get Back Together?
