Sex, Lies and Attempted Murder: an Inside Look at 1992's Shocking 'Long Island Lolita' Case
On May 19, 1992, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot in the head on the front porch of her Long Island home by her husband’s 17-year-old girlfriend, Amy Fisher.
Though Buttafuoco survived, “that was the end of my life as I knew it,” she says of the attack in a trailer for ABC 20/20‘s upcoming special about the dramatic case, which you can watch first on PEOPLE, above.
The brutal attack became national news and made Buttafuoco, her husband Joey, and Fisher—who the press dubbed the “Long Island Lolita”— household names.
RELATED: Long Island Lolita: Treachery in the Suburbs
Now the Buttafuocos and their daughter Jessie, who was only 9 years old at the time of the shooting, are speaking out about their side of the story — revealing new details about the crime, the trial, and their lives then and now — in Friday’s 2-hour 20/20 event.
“Each day got crazier and crazier,” Buttafuoco, who was left deaf in one ear and partially paralyzed on one side of her face, says in the clip.
RELATED: Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher, 25 Years Later: Where Are They Now?
“It was a freakin’ cartoon I was living in — it was insane,” Joey Buttafuoco says of the time.
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Fisher was originally charged with first-degree attempted murder, but she later pleaded guilty to assault. She served seven years in prison, and in 2004, she wrote a book about her experiences called If I Knew Then.
RELATED: Amy Fisher Apologizes
After Fisher’s assault conviction, Joey was indicted on 19 counts of statutory rape, sodomy, and endangering the welfare of a child. Although he initially pleaded not guilty, he later admitted that he had sex with Fisher when she was just 16 — and that he had known her age at the time. He spent four months in jail.
In 2003, Mary Jo Buttafuoco divorced her husband and in 2010 she released a book called Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved With Sociopaths Need to Know.
20/20 airs on Friday, November 8 (9:00 – 11:00 p.m. ET) on ABC.
