LOS ANGELES, CA – More than three decades after being shot in the face on her own front porch, Mary Jo Buttafuoco is still living with a bullet lodged at the base of her brain, and she knows it will likely be what ends her life.
“When you get shot, a bullet tears through wherever it goes, and it causes permanent damage,” the 70-year-old said in a recent interview. “My head is half hollow. I have no feeling on the right side of my face, but I’ve adapted to it.”
On May 19, 1992, Buttafuoco answered her door on Long Island to find Amy Fisher, her husband’s 17-year-old mistress. Fisher pulled out a .25-caliber handgun and fired a single shot into Buttafuoco’s head before fleeing the scene. The bullet entered near her ear and came to rest just above her spinal column, in a spot doctors determined was too dangerous to try removing.
The shooting and subsequent trial turned into a media circus, with Fisher earning the tabloid nickname “Long Island Lolita.” She pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and served seven years of her 5-to-15-year sentence before being released in 1999. Joey Buttafuoco, Mary Jo’s husband, was later convicted of statutory rape and served four months in jail.
The physical toll on Mary Jo has been severe and lasting. She lost hearing in her right ear and developed facial paralysis on the right side. Having only one functioning carotid artery has created ongoing vascular problems that complicate her health to this day.
Perhaps just as damaging was the emotional aftermath. Mary Jo stayed married to Joey for seven years after the shooting, a decision she now attributes to possible Stockholm syndrome symptoms while she was heavily medicated. She became addicted to prescription painkillers but credits a stay at the Betty Ford Center with saving her life. She finally filed for divorce in 2003.
Today, Buttafuoco lives in California near her daughter and maintains a close relationship with her son. She recently shared her story in the Lifetime biopic “I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco,” hoping her experience might help others who have survived trauma.
