Jamie Hess
speaker
130 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Jamie Hess’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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This episode mentions gun violence and suicide. Please take care while listening. Born in 1983, Jesse's childhood was like one long movie montage combined with a classic family sitcom.
When Jessie was nine years old, she was getting ready to take part in it. She'd no longer be left behind while her big brother and the other neighborhood kids caused a little harmless mischief on their way to school. Her biggest worry was remembering her bike lock combination.
Outside of school and neighborhood shenanigans, Jessie spent her time at dance classes and just generally preparing to be the greatest thing Broadway had ever seen. You know, singing along with the best of the 90s divas, just waiting to be discovered from her bedroom.
And if you were around in 1992, even if you were just a kid, like Jessie and I were, then you probably know exactly who her dad is. And if you don't, we'll catch you up. Either way, you're going to want to hear this story from her perspective. Because even though Jessie gives off major main character energy, Her famous last name. The trauma of both the attack and the media coverage.
And everything that came after pushed her down. But not anymore. Today, this warrior goddess takes back her narrative. And I couldn't think of a better guest to help us celebrate today. the one year anniversary of this podcast. That's right.
This show holds space for humans to share stories of turning pain into purpose and the resulting switch flip that ensues, seeing life through a lens of gratitude. When I met Jessie Buttafuoco, I immediately knew that she was the literal embodiment of this. So today, on the one-year anniversary of this show, I bring you her story, Jessie Buttafuoco, today on the Gratitudology Podcast.
In 1992, I was 12 years old, and things were just different. If you're my age or older, you get it. But for the youngins, let me frame this up for you. There was no internet, or hardly any at least. There was no social media. It was a simpler time somehow. The legendary song by Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, from 1975, was charting again due to its inclusion in the movie Wayne's World.
But if you wanted to listen to said song, You had to go down to Sam Goody or Tower Records, those were the music stores for those of you who are too young to know, and buy a cassette tape. Or, if your parents were bougie, a compact disc. People still watched mostly local news and shows on primetime TV for entertainment. Bill Clinton had just won the Democratic presidential nomination.
But nobody had heard the name Monica Lewinsky yet. Reality TV did not yet exist, although that was about to change. In fact, the very first episode of MTV's The Real World premiered just days after the incident we're about to get into. And in a way, this fact was endemic of all that was to come, both in pop culture, true crime, and in this story in particular.
we were just about to turn a cultural corner. Up to now, gossip was either shared in hushed tones over a backyard fence or over shared cups of coffee between PTA moms amidst a 90s wood-paneled kitchen. But we were about to turn that corner all right. where all of a sudden, all of the world was a fishbowl.
We began to expect our neighbor's trauma to be served up on a silver platter for us to consume. It is amidst this moment that we meet Jessie. Only at a tender nine years old, she couldn't possibly have any idea about what was about to come. What was your perspective of your parents growing up? Like, I mean, you were so young, but what did that kind of look like to you?
Of course.
Let's go to the beginning of that day.
This is wild. So for all of these hours, no one's telling you and your brother what's happening?
I feel like I just need to pause for a moment and bring you into my brain as I was sitting here interviewing Jesse. I can't imagine how scared and confused she must have been. Here she is, nine years old, and her entire world was just turned upside down and ripped apart. Her mother is lying in a hospital bed on the verge of death. And her father is, well, who knows where the hell he is.
This brave, traumatized young girl was being passed around to relatives and kept in the dark, all while trying to process what the hell was going on and what would happen next. The part Jessie didn't know, couldn't have known because she was far too young, was what was taking place in the media, what me and the rest of the world were watching.
At this juncture, all we knew was that a suburban woman was shot point blank in the face outside her home. It was a mystery and had regular folks all over the country thinking, could this happen to me? Neighborhoods were abuzz, people were scared, and everyone wanted to find the perpetrator. What no one could know was that that perp, well, She was about to be named.
Who the hell was Amy Fisher? Wow. Mary Jo had never heard of this name before, but it turns out Joey had. She was a customer at Joey's shop, a 17-year-old customer, to be very, very clear. And when she turned up on Mary Jo's doorstep that day, she brought with her not only a gun, but some shocking news as well.
That's right. Amy came to Mary Jo's perfect home that she shared with her quote-unquote perfect husband, Joey, that day to shake up her world in every which way and attempt to end it.
Of course, at the time, Jessie was unaware of how the investigation was unfolding. All she knew was that her mother was lying in the hospital, fighting for her life. But little Jessie hadn't even been allowed to see her mom up to this point. She was too young. So all she could do was wait.
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