Mary Jo Buttafuoco Focuses On New Life

More than 16 years ago, 17-year-old Amy Fisher shot her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco and left her for dead. The story of the Long Island love triangle made headlines all around the world and prompted three television movies.

"By the time I wake up and find out, it's all over the papers that Joey was having an affair with this young girl," Mary Jo told The Early Show. "She wanted me out of the picture so she tried to kill me."

Mary Jo nearly died after she was shot at point-blank range, but she survived and stayed with Joey another eight years.

She says that many people have asked her one question: Why did you stay with him?

"My simple answer is because I believed him when he told me he had nothing to do with her," she said.

Fisher spent seven years in prison and was paroled in 1999. Mary Jo and Joey eventually left Long Island and moved to California.

But distance wasn't enough to heal their wounded relationship and in 2003 they split.

"After 20 years you're like, 'Everybody else is growing up. Why aren't you growing up?'" she said.

For Mary Jo, the move to California turned out to be a good thing.

"My life has changed dramatically. I now am living with my fiancé, Stu, and his three children. My daughter lives with us. My son is all grown up and I'm being a mom again. Something I thought was over and done with. I'm doing it again," she said.

Despite carving out a new life, Joey Buttofuoco and Amy Fisher's bad behavior always manages to intrude on Mary Jo's life. He was arrested in 2005 and he and Amy both have their own porn videos.

"It affects all our lives," she said. "Anything he does, our phones ring off the hook. And you can count on sooner or later Joey is going to do something again."

Mary Jo was inspired to write a book, not only about her marriage, but about how to spot a sociopath. It took her son to finally convince her she had been married to one.

"I said, 'I don't understand why your father doesn't get it. I don't understand,'" she said. "And he just looked at me and he said 'he's never going to get it, Mom. He's a sociopath."

She admits that through their 22-year marriage she thought her love could help him. She said that if she had known then what she knows now she would have gotten out sooner.

"I had a thick skull," she said.

She used that metaphor for the book's rather ironic title, "Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned And What Millions Of People Involved With Sociopaths Need To Know."

In spite of everything that's happened - including the gunshot wound that left her deaf in her right ear and paralyzed on the right side of her face - she said she is still thankful for many things.

"I've been given the gift so far of 16 extra years. I keep taking one step forward," she said.