Amy Fisher Trial: 1992

The media latched onto the tale of the "Long Island Lolita" with an obsession that rivaled Fisher's hunger for Buttafuoco's affection. Reporters looking for a fresh angle in the case were rewarded within days. While tending to his recovering wife at home, Joey Buttafuoco dialed controversial talk radio personality Howard Stern to denounce the sensational stories about his involvement with Fisher. Over the airwaves, Buttafuoco announced to the world that he loved his wife and was innocent of any part in her shooting. He declared that Fisher's claims were hallucinations.

Television and press reporters swarmed around Joey Buttafuoco. Was it true that Long Island escort services called him "Joey Coco-Pops" because of his ability to procure cocaine and women for customers? Buttafuoco admitted that he once had a drug problem, but said that it was now behind him. Had he met Fisher for sex at motels, his boat, his auto body shop, and at her parents' house, as she claimed? Had he encouraged her to kill his wife? Absolutely not, repeated Buttafuoco, who blandly insisted that such charges were the lies of a sick young woman. Buttafuoco said that he only knew the teenager from his auto body shop where she had brought her smashed car for repairs. She was such a frequent customer that he had her telephone beeper number.

As Mary Jo Buttafuoco regained her speech, she vigorously defended her husband. "The story is pretty simple," she told the press. "I love my Joey. My Joey loves me." If she suspected her husband of being involved in the shooting, she said, she would castrate him. "I'm no pushover who doesn't know her ass from her elbow," she told the Ladies Home Journal.