Mario Vitali

**Mario Vitali** is the one of the most notorious villains. He's associated with his obsession with Lisa Durant, and his many returns back from the dead.

## Relationships

### Spouses

Maria's Mother (1)
 Lisa Durant (2)

### Children

Maria Vitali
 Crystal Durant (with Lisa, presumed dead)
 Kelly Anderson (with Ruby Durant, medical rape)
 Ava Vitali
 Chadwick DiMera (with Jennifer DiMera)

His obsession with Lisa Durant has culminated in him creating his own clone of her using extracted genomes in her DNA, named Blanca.

## Background

Mario was born to two Italian parents, not much is known about them, but they both had to disappear after stealing "I Diamanti Dimenticati" (The Forgotten Diamonds) from a museum in Italy. Mario hasn't seen his parents since, but still believes they are alive somewhere.

After his parents' disappearance, Mario toughened up and started to commit crimes in order to make a name for himself. He was often named "Bandito Baffuto" (Moustached Bandit) by locals and "Baffi Scivolosi" (Slippery Moustache) by police due to them knowing he had committed various crimes, but having little to no evidence to charge him.

He built a feared crime family in his hometown, but after The Great Heist, in which he and his 7 most trusted associates stole $22 million worth of jewellery from Umberto II of Italy (the last ruler of the House of Savoy). The group disbanded shortly afterwards, with most being arrested or killed, but Mario escaped both and made his way to Windenburg, where he met Maria's Mother. Since The Great Heist, he has been back to Italy several times but has never been suspected of being the mastermind since his associates were extremely loyal to him.

## Storylines

Mario first appears when Demario is exiled from his family after drunkenly attacking his sister, Lois Durant. Mario sees Demario in a state and offers him a bed for a few nights. Seeing how low Demario is, Mario uses this to his advantage by asking him to "earn his keep" by committing low-level crimes around town for him. Demario felt like he had nowhere to go, and agreed.

Mario lays low for a while as the police investigate a school fire outside Windenburg that he was responsible for, and in the meantime, Demario and Mario's daughter Maria Vitali, become close. When Demario returns to town and finds out that his daughter is involved with Demario, he frames him for the murder of Siobhan Fyres. Demario is forced to leave the country, and Mario is frustrated, but content that he is out of Maria's life.

Maria later finds out she is pregnant with Demario's baby, and at the same time discovers her father was responsible for framing Demario. When Maria fakes her feelings towards Mario's closest ally, Paulie, and announces she's carrying his baby, he surprisingly welcomes Paulie into the family, since he has known Paulie most of his life. Paulie is in love with Maria and she uses this to obtain information about some of his biggest crimes as he knows where all the bodies are buried.

Mario starts sleeping with an associate, Jennifer DiMera, and she falls pregnant with his baby. Mario discovered Maria's plan to incriminate him when he sees her wearing a recording device, and tactfully lies and says that Demario Durant was a dangerous individual responsible for many of the crimes Maria referenced. Maria gets rid of the device and says that she never wants to see her father again, before leaving Windenburg.

### Maria's Exit & Phantom Island

Mario is devastated at the loss of his daughter, and isn't seen again until a while later when Maria is with Beckham DuMont, and he smashes a bottle over his head and kidnaps him. Mario ties Beckham in an abandoned apartment complex on Phantom Island, and sends a text to Maria with a photo of his bloody face. Mario sends a text with a location and Lisa Durant decides to accompany Maria to retrieve Beckham. They turn up at the meeting spot on the edge of the island, where Maria asks what Mario really wants. Mario decides to apologise for what he did, and he just wants a second chance, but this isn't the way to go about it, he understands. Maria tearfully accepts her father's apology, and agrees to rekindle their relationship. Mario hands Beckham over to Maria, but before Mario can take another step, Lisa pulls out her shotgun and shoots him, causing him to fall over the cliff into the waters below. Mario is presumed dead.

### Presumed Dead, Stalking, DNA Test Altering

Lisa is stalked for weeks and is adamant someone is trying to kill her - she finds cyanide beside her bed table, a knife was plunged face up into her sofa, and a car deliberately drove towards her. Mario reveals himself to be alive and Lisa's stalker. He tells her he was found by a fisherman and nursed back to health. Lisa tells him he’s disgusting for what he did to Beck and that she had to protect her family. Mario pins Lisa to a wall and holds a knife to her neck. They then kiss and sleep together. Lisa wakes up full of regret and Mario tells her that he has proof that she shot him and that he has to marry her otherwise he’ll report it to the police. Lisa says it doesn’t matter as the police would probably give her another bullet to try again. Mario shows Lisa a photo of a red-haired woman tied up and she thinks it’s Jade. Terrified for her daughter’s safety (even though they’re not speaking at that point) she agrees to marry him... then she passes out and discovers that she is pregnant with Mario’s baby. Mario finds the pregnancy test and demands they marry immediately. Lisa agrees, knowing her daughter is at stake and signs marriage papers. Lisa hires a PI to find Jade and is contacted by him a few weeks later with photos of Jade shopping in Dubai... Lisa confronts Mario, and he tells her he was taken aback by her when they met in Milan... Lisa suddenly has a flashback to Milan... Twenty years ago... They met at a club and slept together... Lisa tells Mario much of her time in Milan was a blur until the day she found out she was pregnant with Cory... Lisa is in shock at the realisation that Mario could indeed be the father of Cory and arranges for a DNA test.

Mario and Lisa bond over their possible child together and he tells her he was in Milan at the time looking for his own son, but he was filled with regret when he first slept with another woman that wasn't his wife and still to this day doesn't know where his son is.

### DNA Reveal, Pregnancy Lie and Second Death

Maria and Beck are told about Mario's return and Lisa's pregnancy and are disgusted and want nothing to do with either of them. Mario understands Maria's apprehension. The paternity test comes in and reveals that Mario is in fact Cory's father. Mario meets his son the next day, but Cory takes the news badly, especially after his brother, Beck, was traumatised by his actions. Drucilla Nadeau (an old flame of Mario's) is convinced something isn't right, and steals a DNA sample from Mario in order to run another test. That test eventually proves Mario isn't Cory's father after all, and that there's only an 18.6% chance that he's related to him, which means that Mario is definitely related to Cory, but they just don't know how...

Mario admits his deceit and says it was only to get closer to Lisa. Behind his back, Lisa and Drucilla plan to adopt Lisa's baby out when she gives birth so that the child won't have a messed up life with Mario as its father. When Lisa returns home after safely giving birth, she tells him that she had lost the baby and had their daughter cremated. Mario is in tears hearing this, but anger grows when Lisa reveals she was lying herself and in fact, she left their daughter by a river in the woods thinking she would be better off dead. A fight ensues, and Mario throws Lisa against a wall, but he is pushed back by her and smashes his skull on a glass table and bleeds out. When Lisa calls Dru to help her, they see that Mario's body is no longer there, suggesting her ran away again and evaded death.

## Crimes Committed (& various evil deeds)

* Ordered several armed robberies in Windenburg and around the world
* Has been involved in "unscrupulous" mob-related activities due to being the head of the Vitali crime family
* Murdered Siobhan Fyres/ordered her murder [unclear]
* Framed Demario Durant for the murder of Siobhan Fyres after he discovered Demario was in a relationship with his daughter, Maria
* Attacked Beckham DuMont with a glass bottle, leaving him unconscious
* Kidnapped Beckham DuMont and held him hostage
* Stalked Lisa Durant as revenge for her attempting to kill him; Arranged for
	+ Cyanide pills to be placed beside her bed table
	+ A knife plunged face up into her sofa
	+ A car to deliberately drove towards her
* Pretended he had kidnapped Lisa's daughter Jade in order to make her marry him for Jade's safe return
* Lied about fathering Cory Durant and altered a DNA test
* Held a knife to Lisa Durant's throat
* Tried to kill Lisa Durant when she told him their daughter had died and that she only killed her to punish him
* Ordered Nicholas Wright to extract genomes of Lisa's DNA in order to create her clone, Blanca [Not revealed yet]

## Health and Vitals

* Shot with a shotgun by Lisa Durant, survived
* Thrown onto a glass table and smashing his skull in a fight with Lisa Durant, survived