Amy Fisher back in limelight, by her choice

By Sylvia Adcock
Newsday

Amy Fisher is promoting her self-published book.

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Last Monday, she was running from one mall to the next, looking for a Power Rangers costume — it had to be red — for her 3-year-old to wear on Halloween.

She's just like any other young Long Island mom. Except that was the day her book came out. And she is — or was — Amy Fisher.

In the five years since she was released from prison for shooting her married lover's wife in the face, Fisher has changed her name and Social Security number, gone to college, had a child and married. She underwent plastic surgery to alter her appearance, and then, she says, had the surgery reversed. Today, her husband of one year does not call her Amy, but by her new name, which she does not disclose to the media.

"Amy is a pen name, so to speak," she said. "I just want to forget about Amy Fisher, put her in a closet somewhere and start my life new."

It's almost like an episode of "Extreme Makeover." Only, Fisher says, it's not that easy.

"You never really are comfortable with the new identity. ... You'll meet someone who might be a potential girlfriend at Mommy and Me, like with my son, and you talk to this person and you really like them. And then it's like, should I tell them about my past? Is it any of their business? If they find out on their own, will they think less of me?"

That won't be a problem anymore.

This week, Fisher is in the center of a self-imposed spotlight as she promotes her self-published book titled "If I Knew Then ... " It's a softcover with chapters on her past ("Meeting Joey," "Prison Life") and her present ("Becoming a Mom," "Turning Thirty"), and it includes tips for parents of teens. She hopes to make money from it, and plans to donate some profits to prison reform and gun-control groups.

The publicity she now seeks will end some of the relative anonymity of her life with her husband, a retired New York City police officer 20 years her senior, and son in their four-bedroom house on an acre of property near the Hamptons. "Now," she said, "People will know. ... They'll be like, OK, you're Amy Fisher. That's out of the way."
 
Today, her French manicure is perfect and the marquis-cut diamond on her left hand is a rock. In an interview in the offices at the Long Island Press, where Fisher writes a weekly column, she wears a sleeveless print dress, a gold watch with diamonds, simple gold earrings and a tiny gold ankle bracelet. She is five months' pregnant, but these aren't maternity clothes.

It was 12 years ago, in May 1992, that Amy Fisher became part of our consciousness. At 17, she showed up on the Massapequa doorstep of Mary Jo Buttafuoco with a .25-caliber pistol and shot her in the face, claiming later that the gun went off accidentally. Mary Jo Buttafuoco still has a bullet lodged in her neck. The crime and Fisher's relationship with Joey Buttafuoco spawned three made-for-TV movies.

Fisher served seven years in an upstate New York prison, and had only one thought on the day of her release. "I said to my attorneys, 'OK, you're going to get my name changed,' " she said.

But it wasn't enough. She found that she could get a job under her new name, but it was impossible to keep one.

It only took one secretary to say, "I think she's Amy Fisher." The result would be several weeks severance pay.

Fisher was still on parole when she met her husband-to-be, Lou, on Match.com. "Being a former police officer, he's been around the block. He's used to dealing with real criminals. He was like, 'Look, you were a kid,' " she said.

Their son was born in February 2001, and last September they married in Las Vegas.

She decided to write a book. "I got thousands of letters at the Long Island Press. People talking about their problems, saying, 'You got your life together, how did you do it?' I got letters from mothers and teenagers. ... I thought, if I write my experiences and talk about the negatives and everything I've learned, maybe that will help someone."

It remains to be seen if Amy Fisher's book will be viewed as a self-help book for troubled teens or a true-crime tell-all. On Amazon.com, readers who ask for the book are also asked if they would like to buy "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star."

Fisher has no plans to leave Long Island.

Last week, she and her husband found out that their second child will be a girl. Her eyes light up at the thought. "Pink," she said, sighing. "Don't all women want a little girl? I have visions of little pink dresses and pigtails.

"It all sounds so rosy."