Who is Joey Buttafuoco?
Joseph A. ‘Joey’ Buttafuoco was born in Massapequa, New York State USA, under the zodiac sign of Pisces on 11 March 1956. He’s today living on Long Island where he owns an auto body shop, while he’s perhaps only known for having committed statutory rape on American woman Amy Elizabeth Fisher when she was 16 years old; Amy’s known on the internet as ‘the Long Island Lolita’, mostly because she shot Joey’s former wife Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the head when she was 17.
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Education and early life
Joey’s father Caspar Buttafuoco and mother whose name remains undisclosed raised him in Massapequa, alongside his brother and sister whose names are also unknown; Caspar was a businessman who opened the Complete Auto Body repair shop which Joey owns today, while he was also the owner of the Lighthouse Service Station located in New York City. Caspar died at the age of 80, having lost his long battle against lung cancer.
Joey became interested in his father’s work at a quite an early age, and had learned all that he needed to know about it by the time he inherited the auto body shop. He was mostly into sports while attending Massapequa High School, excelling in baseball, as well as playing football and basketball, and he appeared in several school plays.
He matriculated in 1974 and then began working at his father’s store, rather than enroll at college.
Joey’s career
Not a lot has been shared about Joey’s career, but it’s believed that he worked at his father’s Complete Auto Body repair shop until 1995, when he became its owner.
Affair and arrest
In July 1991, Amy Fisher brought her car to Joey and his father’s auto body shop, and she and Joey began an affair only a couple of days later; he was 35 at that time, while Amy was 16.
On 19 May 1992, Amy came to Joey and his wife Mary Jo’s home, pretending to be her own sister Ann Marie. Joey was not at home, and Amy used the opportunity to try and convince Mary Jo that she was having an affair with her husband, showing a T-shirt that Joey had gifted her as evidence. Amy and Mary Jo got into a fight, and when Mary Jo told her to leave and turned to go back inside the house, Amy fired from a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol, hitting Mary Jo in the head; Mary Jo’s life was in danger, but the doctors were able to save her, and she then identified Amy as her attacker.
The court case following the event was highly publicized, and Joey’s lawyer tried to prove that Joey didn’t really have an affair with Amy, and that she made up the entire story; Amy’s lawyer tried to make it look as if Joey had talked Amy into killing his wife.
Amy was sentenced to spend between five and 15 years behind bars, and was paroled in May 1999; she then became an author, having published her biography “If I Knew Then…” in 2004, which became a New York Times best-seller. Amy’s today also an adult actress, and webcam model.
Joey was indicted on close to 20 charges of endangering the welfare of a child, sodomy and statutory rape, and although he firstly pleaded not guilty, he eventually changed his mind, admitting that he knew that she was 16 when he had sex with her; he was released from jail after having served four of his six months sentence.
Joey and Mary Jo moved to California after he came out of prison; she eventually filed for divorce around 10 years later, on 3 February 2003; they have two children together, Jessica and Paul Buttafuoco.
Joey married his second wife, non-celebrity American Evanka Franjko in 2005, and they’ve been together to this day; Evanka had filed for divorce in 2007, but changed her mind in that year.
Joey’s other crimes
Joey was charged with trying to pay for the services of a prostitute in 1995; he pleaded no contest, was put on a two-year probation and had to pay a fine.
He admitted to having committed auto insurance fraud in 2004, had to spend a year in jail, and was put on five-years probation; because of this, Joey cannot work in the car body industry in California ever again.
The police found ammunition at Joey’s home in August 2005, which he’s not allowed to own because he’s a convicted felon; he was convicted and served time in jail from 8 January to 28 April 2007.
Life after rape trial – where is Joey today?
Joey’s name was all over the newspapers and TV because of his and Amy Fisher’s trial, and many people seemed to be on his side. He was invited to make a guest appearance in various talk-shows and news shows, and gave interviews to many magazines; although not invited to appear in the show, David Letterman often spoke about the entire case in his popular talk-show “Late Night with David Letterman”.
While performing in the show “Saturday Night Live” in January 1993, Madonna ripped a photo of Joey, protesting against sexual abuse; in the 18th episode of the fourth season of the critically acclaimed comedy series “Friends”, the characters joked about Buttafuoco harming the reputation of all the people whose name is Joey.
The year 2002 saw Joey compete in “Celebrity Boxing”, winning against female professional wrestler Joanie ‘Chyna’ Laurer.
Joey’s since appeared in only a couple of talk-shows, and is today leading a life on Long Island, away from the media’s attention.
Interesting facts and hobbies
Joey was physically highly active during his teenage years, while he was mostly focused on boxing and wrestling in his 20s, and also had several training sessions at the gym during his 20s and 30s, but no longer works out today.
Joey’s travelled to close to 30 US states, but only a couple of European and South American countries, and he nowadays prefers staying at his home on Long Island over travelling.
He’s a huge fan of actors Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise, and some of his favorite movies include “Die Hard”, “The Sixth Sense”, and “Armageddon”.
Height, eyes and net worth
Joey’s age is 66. His hair’s gray and eyes are brown, his height is 5ft 11ins (1.8m) and his weight is about 185lbs (85kgs).
Joey’s net worth’s been estimated at less than $100,000, as of October 2022.
