Joseph A. Buttafuoco was born on 11 March 1956, in Massapequa, New York State USA, and is the owner of an auto body shop, and actor, but best known for his affair with Amy Fisher, a 17-year-old who subsequently shot his wife Mary Jo Buttafuoco in 1992.
So just how rich is Joey Battafuoco? According to sources in early 2017, Battafuoco has established a wealth of over $20,000, earned through his auto repair business, and also through his involvement in the entertainment industry.
Joey Buttafuoco Net Worth $20,000
Battafuocco grew up in Massapequa, where he eventually opened an auto body shop. In his mid-thirties, he became involved with Amy Fisher who was 16 years old at the time, meeting her at his shop. The following year, the girl came to Buttafuoco’s home where she confronted his wife Mary Jo, a 37-year-old mother of two. Introducing herself as her fictitious sister Ann Marie, Fisher tried to assure the woman that her husband was having an affair with Fisher’s younger sister, offering a T-shirt that Battafuoco had given her, with his body shop logo, as a proof of the affair. When Mary Jo demanded of Fisher to go away, she pulled out a .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol, shot her in the head and left.
Mary Jo suffered a severe brain injury and underwent long surgery, after which she gave a detailed description of what happened to the authorities, who arrested the teen and started the investigation. The whole case soon involved a range of conflicting claims, with Battafuoco’s lawyer stating that his client never had an affair with the girl, and Fisher’s lawyer claiming that she was Battafuoco’s victim whom he manipulated into the shooting. The case quickly gained a huge media attention. The story of the incident could be seen or read about almost everywhere, and all three members of the love triangle became nationally-known personalities. While Fisher was dubbed the ‘Long Island Lolita’, Battafuoco was called ‘Heartthrob of Sleaze’, becoming a celebrity, of sorts. Fisher was charged with attempted murder, but eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated assault. She served seven years in prison.
As for Battafuoco, although he pleaded not guilty at first, he eventually admitted to starting a sexual relationship with Fisher when she was 16, and served four months for sodomy, statutory rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
As if all this wasn’t enough for Battafuoco, he had several more brushes with the law in the years following his release, from prostitution to insurance fraud. He pleaded no contest to solicitation of prostitution in 1995, being fined and put on two-years probation. In 2004 he was sentenced to a year in jail for auto-insurance fraud, after which he received a prohibition to work in the auto body industry in California. He served another three months in 2007 for illegal possession of ammunition.
Although considered as the villain of the story, the whole situation enabled Battafuoco to become very famous. When Fisher’s trial began, he started giving numerous interviews and appearances in all forms of media, gaining more and more popularity. He eventually made various TV appearances unrelated to the Fisher case; these included shows like “Celebrity Boxing”, “Judge Janine Pirro” and “Judge Alex”. All added to his net worth.
He even developed an acting career, making his debut in the 1996 low-budget independent film “Cul-de-Sac”. He went on to appear in films like “The Godson”, “The Underground Comedy Movie”, “Finding Forrester” and “Operation Repo: The Movie”. Battafuoco’s involvement in the film industry enabled him to earn good money.
Speaking about his personal life, Battafuoco married Mary Jo in 1977, and they have two children together. Much to everyone’s surprise, his wife didn’t leave him after the shooting, but then filed for divorce in 2003. As of 2005, Battafuoco has been married to Evanka Franjko. Reportedly, he and Fisher briefly reunited and tried to sell a reality show about their lives in 2007. The same year Evanka filed for divorce, but later withdrew the petition.
