PR.com (Allison Kugel): I want to start by talking about your recent trip back to Long Island to do some book signings. What kind of feelings did it bring up, and how was the experience for you?

Mary Jo Buttafuoco: It was really awesome. This time I came back as an author, and to go and talk in front of people, and to run into a lot of my old friends and neighbors from years ago, it’s just been wonderful. I really feel like I have a message and people are getting it. The response could not be better. I’m so thrilled.

PR.com: Back in the nineties when you were shot, and for years afterwards you didn’t get much public sympathy. People seemed angry with you because you were defending Joey, and you were staying in your marriage. Now people seem to be rallying around you with a lot of support. What do you think has made the difference?

Mary Jo Buttafuoco: I think time. And it was such a strange thing. You’re minding your own business, not bothering anybody, and somebody comes and tries to murder you in cold blood. I did the only thing I knew to do which was to defend my husband, because I believed him at the time. This [public] outcry of, “What a dope you are,” it hurt. It was terrible and I didn’t understand it. Nothing can prepare you for this. I wasn’t meant to be in the media spotlight. I didn’t understand the media at the time. I only knew then what I knew then, and what I knew then was what he told me, and I believed him. Now that I’m saying I married a sociopath I’m like, “Oh, ok. Now I get it.” He was a very good liar. Outsiders could see what I could not see.

PR.com: I also think that a lot of people didn’t see that the situation wasn’t black and white. Upon reading your book I realized that you were battered emotionally and spiritually. You were also on heavy pain medication because of your injury. You didn’t have the strength or the clarity to see it for what it was back then.

Mary Jo Buttafuoco: Right. And it’s not an excuse, but it is the reason. That’s the subtitle of the book, “Why I Stayed.” It wasn’t any one particular thing. It was trying to survive and keep my kids and our family together, and you’re right, being in this fog for years because of pain pills.

PR.com: You said that it was your son who came to you describing Joey Buttafuoco as a sociopath. Did you ever ask your son how long he felt that way about his dad?

Mary Jo Buttafuoco: It certainly rocked me to hear [my son] say that. Then I looked it up and saw that he was right. I guess he knew for a while because what my ex-husband put my son through I didn’t know about and it was very upsetting. The things that Joe put him through he wouldn’t tell me about. I would say my son figured it out that year in 2007, just on his own. Then for the umpteenth time I said “What is wrong with your father? Why does he do these things?” Paul (Mary Jo’s son) very matter of factly said it to me. He’d actually researched it.

click to read entire interview with Mary Jo Buttafuoco