Stefano
DiMera is the father of Renée
DuMonde, Megan Hathaway,
Benjy Hawk, Lexie Brooks, and Elvis Banks. He is also the adoptive
father of Peter
and Kristen
Blake, and raised
Tony
DiMera believing that he was
his son. He had a nephew, André
DiMera. It is unknown exactly
how many offspring Stefano has. Although we've seen eight of his
children and two wives, it has been said that he has others. Stefano
had a common-law marriage with Daphne
DiMera, who is also deceased,
and was briefly married to Ellen Hawk. He is also the ex-husband of
Vivian
Alamain. Stefano first
entered the show as an organized crime kingpin. Throughout the years,
he has become more gothic, especially through his firm belief that he
will never die. According to Stefano, he is like a Phoenix, and he
will always rise from the ashes to his former glory and power. He is
the seventh son of the seventh son; as a 300 year-old DiMera family
legend dictates, such a son will never die. He certainly has proven
this time and time again. Stefano has "died" ten times, coming back
stronger than ever each time. Because of this, he holds the record in
Salem for the most faked deaths.
In early February, 1982, Tony DiMera went to Rome, Italy, to visit his powerful father, Stefano, who was making plans for coming to Salem to move the DiMera business and build a family there. Stefano had asked Tony to bring slides of the life and people of Salem. Tony had recently held a gala at his home which he had secretly taped for his father. Viewing the images from this party, Stefano got to know the good people of Salem before he arrived, acquiring a great advantage over them. However, he also wanted to see the female scenery. While watching the video, two women stood out to Stefano: Dr. Marlena Evans and Julie Williams. Marlena, Stefano thought, would make a great addition to the DiMera family as a bride to Tony. He believed her to be a great choice to give birth to a future DiMera heir. But Julie...Stefano wanted Julie for himself, despite the fact that she was married. A third woman, Kayla Brady, also caught their eye and they believed her to be very valuable in the future, although Tony warned Stefano that her brother was a captain in the police force.
Meanwhile,
Stefano was holding Stuart Whyland prisoner. Stuart, who had been
living in Salem for several months, had been responsible for the
shooting of Alex Marshall, having been ordered by Stefano to shoot
him. Stefano had ordered Stuart to shoot him because he was getting
in the way of an Anderson Manufacturing takeover masterminded by
Stefano. Now, Stefano had taken Stuart prisoner to keep him from
divulging any of the DiMera involvement in the matter, in addition to
making transgressions against the DiMera family. Furthermore, Stefano
could use Stuart to immediately become respected in the Salem
community. In Rome, Stefano instructed Stuart to confess to ordering
Alex's shooting - Stefano threatened to kill Evan Whyland, Stuart's
son, if he didn't comply. He then had Stuart taken to Salem to be
arrested and stand trial. Immediately, the Hortons were in his debt
(David Banning had been suspected of shooting Alex), especially
Julie. Soon after arriving in Salem, Stefano met with Julie and
demonstrated great romantic interest in her. At the same time, he
rekindled a relationship with his former mistress and Julie's
nemesis, Lee DuMonde, and moved into her penthouse. Stefano would
soon move into the former Whyland mansion. To make it his own, he
hired Julie to redecorate the house, hoping to romance her in the
process. He also forced Liz Chandler, Tony's estranged wife, to move
in and carry out the part of a loving wife to Tony, and suggested
that she try to become pregnant with Tony's child.
Already a hero for turning in Stuart Whyland, Stefano continued his heroic facade by contributing vast amounts of money to the fledgling University Hospital and various charities. Because of this, he now controlled the hospital and had many more people in his debt, Tom Horton among them. Everyone lauded Stefano for his goodness and generosity. But everyone was ignorant to the fact that Stefano was the leader of an international crime syndicate under the guise of DiMera Enterprises. He then made Alex Marshall hospital administrator, the position previously held by Stuart. However, he warned Alex not play any games. One of the reasons Stefano had sought revenge against Stuart was that he'd embezzled money from the hospital. Meanwhile, Stefano and Tony asked Doug Williams, Julie's husband, if they could be silent partners in Doug's Place, with the intentions of eventually taking over the club. Doug's refusal only fueled their mysterious determination to take over the club. Their relentless pursuit for a piece of Doug's Place only awakened suspicions. In the meantime, Stefano claimed a small a victory after Mary Anderson finally agreed to sell him Anderson Manufacturing (Alex seduced her into selling.) Unfortunately, this was indeed a very small victory because Mary was killed by the Salem Strangler before she signed the plant over to DiMera Enterprises. Anderson Manufacturing was now equally owned by Mary's mother Phyllis, and her 15 year-old sister Melissa. Alex eventually convinced Phyllis to sell her half of the company over to the DiMeras.
Another victim of the Salem Strangler who had survived her attack had been Renée DuMonde, Lee's younger sister. Feeling an obligation to Lee, and seeing Tony's interest in the girl, Stefano offered his home Renée and guaranteed her protection. However, Lee protested Stefano's generosity. For whatever reason, she did not want Tony and Renée to form a relationship. In fact, the thought of it disturbed her. Stefano paid no attention to Lee's warnings, but he was disturbed by the fact that Lee knew so much about him and the business. In order to keep Lee from possibly revealing information about him, Stefano paid off a judge to release Lee from her court-ordered therapy with Marlena Evans. This only caused more conflict between Stefano and Lee. Finally, the Strangler attacked Renée again. To protect Renée, Tony took her away from Salem. Lee desperately pleaded with Stefano to find them and stop them from forming a romantic relationship. Though he did try to find them, he resented Lee's objections to Tony. After this, Lee abruptly left Salem. And coincidentally, when Renée and Tony were found, she wanted nothing to do with Tony and moved out of the DiMeras. Concerned over what Lee may have told Renée, Stefano vowed to find her and make her pay. After some months, Stefano did find Lee. But by that time, he already knew what she'd told Renée: that Lee and Stefano were her parents. Stefano didn't believe this at first but Lee's claim was proven through blood tests. Because Lee was his newfound daughter's mother, Stefano promised not to hurt her as long as Renée moved into the mansion and lived as his daughter. This became a bit difficult because of the relationship she and Tony had shared. In order to get his children to resolve their feelings for each other and live together as siblings, Stefano faked an attack of angina. The plan having worked successfully, Stefano now encouraged Renée to resume her relationship with David Banning. Having David -- a Horton -- in the family would prove useful to him. She and David eventually married.
Meanwhile, Stefano was fed up with Liz. Not only had she not become pregnant with Tony's child, but she was having a rather indiscreet affair with Neil Curtis. To get Liz to quit her philandering and return to the mansion, Stefano had a bomb set in Neil's hotel room, almost killing him. Getting the message loud and clear, Liz complied and returned to Tony. Less than a month later, she found out that she was pregnant. At this time, Stefano was angered at the arrival of his ex-wife and Tony's mother, Daphne. Stefano hated her for some reason and warned her to leave and to stop interfering in Tony's life. Eventually, she did disappear.
Finally, several people became suspicious of Stefano. His past in Europe became known to Doug, Julie, Don Craig, and Mickey Horton. Doug and Julie were hot on his trail by questioning a madam named Foxy Humdinger, who had had an affair with Stefano in the past; Mickey and Don were retracing all of the crimes committed by the DiMera family in Europe. However, only one person truly knew all about Stefano's dealings, and that was Stuart Whyland's son, Dr. Evan Whyland. Evan had found out what had transpired between his father and Stefano, and the proof was hidden in a safety deposit box. In addition, Evan was blackmailing Stefano with this information. However, Stefano was able to steal the key to the deposit box from Evan and disposed of him. He ordered his henchmen to tamper with the brakes on Evan's car. One night, Evan's car crashed. Both Evan and Maggie Horton had been in the car. In the hospital, Evan died while murmuring something about Stefano and Caracas. Acting on Evan's cryptic last words, Mickey discovered that Stefano owned a large compound in Caracas, Venezuela, and boarded a flight there to investigate his dealings. However, his visit to Venezuela ended in disaster. Two steps ahead of Mickey, Stefano arranged for Mickey to be kidnapped upon arriving in Venezuela. Furthermore, he constructed an elaborate hoax to make it look like Mickey had died in a plane crash. Pictures of the wreck reached the frightened Salemites. Also, Stefano switched Mickey's dental records to match those of a burned body found in the wreckage. While everyone in Salem mourned Mickey, Mickey was held prisoner in Stefano's Venezuelan compound.
All of this activity began to rouse more suspicions, especially among Roman Brady and Abe Carver. Roman, in fact, was working for the ISA to reveal Stefano's organized crime empire, which had already taken a stronghold in Salem via drug trafficking. To keep Roman at bay, Stefano had Alex frame Roman for drug dealing and accepting bribes. After Roman was suspended from the police force, however, Roman went underground to smoke him out and the chase for Stefano turned red hot. Growing more and more furious at Roman's inability to give up, Stefano tried to kill his sister Kayla by poisoning her. However, Kayla survived and all this did was add Chris Kositchek, Kayla's boyfriend, to Stefano's growing list of enemies. Following this, Stefano had Alex tamper with the hospital robot in order to kill Alice Horton in another attempt to warn Roman. Fortunately, the robot malfunctioned and Alice escaped the incident unharmed. Stefano was going to try it a second time, but a secretary at the hospital discovered the plan and she was killed instead. Roman still not giving up, Stefano had one of his officers, Tim Casey, murdered. Stefano also toyed with Marlena, Roman's fiancée, by leaving a bloody mannequin wearing her clothes in her penthouse. Finally, Stefano had no choice but dispose of Roman. Through his ingenious "Tuxedo Plan", Stefano planned on having Roman killed on his wedding day at the tuxedo store. The plan failed. However, Stefano had a backup plan called "High C", which entailed having a gunman shoot Roman during his wedding when Doug hit a high C while singing a song. This plan was also thwarted. After the wedding, Stefano continued trying to kill Roman on his honeymoon, not knowing that Roman, instead of going on his honeymoon, had actually gone undercover to get Stefano's hired assassin to confess. When he finally did, Stefano knew that the game was over.
On top of this, Stefano suspected that Renée and Tony were having an incestuous affair. Finding it very odd, Stefano wondered if Tony was even his son and decided to locate Daphne. He finally found her in a Chicago hospital where Tony had hidden her. There, she finally got her to confess that Tony was the son of a man with whom she'd had an affair, Enrico. Shell-shocked, Stefano confronted Tony. While Stefano didn't want anything to change, he felt betrayed by Tony because he had known for months. Stefano realized that things with Tony would never be the same again. Defeated, Stefano took desperate measures.
By
coincidence, Liz had decided to blackmail Stefano into giving her
back her freedom. She, too, had noticed the relationship between Tony
and Renée and had been taking pictures of them together
thinking that it would create a scandal. But since Tony and
Renée weren't really siblings, Stefano only laughed at Liz's
blackmail attempt held her at gunpoint. He planned to use her as a
hostage while he escaped from the police. Using the underground
tunnel that connected the mansion with Doug's Place, Stefano ran into
Chris Kositchek and shot him. Stefano and Liz emerged from the cellar
of Doug's Place; Marlena had the misfortune of being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Stefano took her hostage as well and fled to
his mountain estate, Ridgecrest. There, he held a gun to both of his
ladies. He awaited the arrival of a helicopter that would take him
and his prisoners away. Soon, Liz went into labor and Stefano ordered
Marlena to deliver the child. Afterward, Stefano took Marlena and
attempted to board his helicopter. In the nick of time, Roman arrived
and arrested Stefano. Stefano was held in jail without bail while he
awaited trial. While in prison, Stefano suffered a stroke. After
being admitted into the emergency room for surgery, he was declared
dead.
Even from the tomb, Stefano caused problems. His will stipulated that Tony and Renée would live together in the DiMera mansion as brother and sister. Since there was still sexual tension between the two, it was pretty hard. Furthermore, the will awarded $5 million to the first one of his children to give him an heir. At the time, Tony was married to Anna, and Renée to David. A race ensued, in which neither party won. In the end, it was all a ruse Stefano had concocted; a real will was found in which all of the DiMera fortune was left only to Renée, since Tony wasn't really his son to begin with. But Renée soon was killed. A rash of killings ensued in Salem in 1983, and the perpetrator named the Salem Slasher. Although at first it seemed like the Slasher was Roman Brady, and then Tony DiMera, the killer was really André DiMera, Stefano's nephew. André looked exactly like Tony as a result of plastic surgery.
André was receiving orders from a man whose face we did not see for a long time, just a ring bearing a Phoenix on the facet. When the face of "The Phoenix" was finally revealed, it was the face of Stefano! He was still alive! Stefano had sent André to Salem to get rid of any evidence of his faked death. Although Stefano had not ordered Renée to be killed, André was forced to commit the murder when she realized that he was not Tony. Nurse Kelly Chase had been killed because Stefano had paid her to find a body at the morgue and tag his name to it; afterwards, Kelly had wanted to confess everything, thus she signed her own death warrant. The third murder victim, Trista Bradford, was killed because she'd discovered discrepancies in the lab reports at the hospital the night that Stefano died. Daisy Hawkins, a prostitute, had been murdered to frame Roman for the killings. Leticia Bradford had been killed to divert attention onto Eugene Bradford, thus allowing Stefano to confuse the police and steal a certain thing of precious value to him. Meanwhile, André kept the real Tony DiMera locked up in chains inside a secret room in Tony's penthouse. Roman, who was believed to be the crazed killer, faked his own death to be able to capture the true Slasher. Roman's stunt only tricked the Salem PD; with hidden cameras throughout Salem, Stefano was well-aware that he wasn't really dead.
This
thing of value that Stefano desired was an ancient talisman named the
Baka. The Baka was a curious wooden artifact that had been the
subject of a great animosity between two families, the DiMeras and
the Bradfords, which were connected through a marriage in the late
18th century. On one face, the Baka showed the Bradford Family crest;
on the other, a rising Phoenix. According to legend, the Baka held
negative power for the Bradfords, and positive power for the DiMeras.
For 200 years, the Bradfords had held onto the Baka in order to keep
the DiMeras from taking advantage of its power...that is until
Stefano stole it from Reginald Bradford. Somehow, the Baka was stolen
from Stefano and fell back into Reginald's hands, who gave it to
Eugene shortly before his death. In addition to all of this, the Baka
was also the centerpiece in one of Stefano's most dastardly plans.
After having André steal the Baka, Stefano used it to build a
bomb. He planned to have André kill Marlena during a
nationally-televised concert; if the plan did not work, his backup
plan was to set off a bomb at the concert hall which could only be
defused using the Baka. While André busied himself organizing
the charity concert which would benefit a new psychiatric wing for
the hospital, Stefano busied himself by trying to drive Eugene
insane. He had Delia telephone Eugene incessantly pretending to be
his deceased wife Bonnie. Delia also created phantom projections of
Eugene's other dead wife, Trista. Though the plan originally worked,
Eugene soon realized that he was being duped. Meanwhile, Stefano
managed to capture Roman and hold him captive.
The
night of the concert finally arrived. It was a blacktie primetime
network special with famous entertainers such as Billy Vera & the
Beaters, Al Jarreau, Serge Anatol, and even Liz Chandler. While he
Stefano had Roman released and led him through a cat-and-mouse game,
Stefano and his lover May awaited in an old prop room in the concert
hall for the moment when Marlena would be killed. While waiting,
Stefano even took Serge Anatol's place as conductor of the Salem
Philharmonic Symphony and conducted the Sleeping Beauty Waltz!
Finally, the time came for André to perform his last act as
"the Slasher", only to bungle it. While trying to kill Marlena,
André was tripped by a drunken Alex Marshall and was forced to
escape. Enraged, Stefano promised André that he would pay for
his stupidity; he also revealed that he never planned on helping
André escape because he had killed Renée. Now that
Stefano's cover had been blown, Stefano and Petrov raced to escape
Salem and the police. During the high-speed chase, Stefano discovered
Alex Marshall in the backseat. An argument followed between the two,
and Stefano's car plunged off a bridge into the icy waters of the
Salem River. Only Alex was found. After searching the river, the
police declared Stefano and Petrov dead.
But
dead he was not. Stefano was residing in a secret location on his
yacht, carefully planning a way to retrieve three valuable prisms
that were in the possession of Maxwell and Megan Hathaway. The
prisms, he said, would cure his brain tumor. Although Stefano had
faked his death, he was really suffering from an inoperable brain
tumor. During this time, Megan Hathaway was revealed to be Stefano's
daughter, not Maxwell's. That is why she had no problem when Maxwell
was killed. In the end, the prism remained lost in the Louisiana
bayou after an alligator ate it. The prisms were of great importance
to Stefano. They were not ordinary crystals. When the prisms were
together and held underneath a laser, they revealed coded
instructions to several breakthroughs in technology and science; one
of these breakthroughs was how to operate on Stefano's type of tumor.
The prisms had been designed by an American, but Communist, scientist
named Victor Chorvat, and were part of a Soviet plot called the Triad
Experiment.
Dismayed,
Stefano began searching for the second prism. Unbeknownst to him, the
prism was among Daphne's jewelry collection as a charming necklace.
After Stefano discovered this, he had André go after the
necklace. The chase for the second prism reached its zenith in an
island located in the Bermuda Triangle. André had crashed a
plane carrying several Salemites (and the prism) on the island, where
Stefano awaited. Over the course of a week, the prism passed hands
from Calliope to Hope to Anna to André to Tony to Jasmine to
Roman. Knowing that Roman held the prism, Stefano confronted him and
held a gun to him. Roman was shocked to see him alive. Leading him
the top of a cliff, Stefano went into a monologue revealing his
admiration for Roman as an opponent. "You and I are very much alike,
Roman." He went on to cite how both of them treasure family above all
else. In the middle of his speech, Stefano got a stinging headache
from his tumor. Roman took this opportunity to take the gun away from
Stefano. During the struggle, the gun went off, shooting Roman in the
stomach and sending him off the cliff to his apparent demise. Stefano
coldly looked at Roman's body, laughed, and escaped aboard a
helicopter. However, Stefano later stole Roman's dead body from the
beach where he lay dead. "Now I have you exactly where I want you,"
he said while standing over Roman's body.
Now that he had the second prism, Stefano focused his efforts on retrieving the first and third prisms. He sent his henchwoman, nurse Kate Honeycutt, back to the Bayou to retrieve the blasted thing. In a matter of days, Honeycutt located the prism; some alligator poachers had found it inside the stomach of an alligator. Now with two prisms in his possession, he came up with an ingenious plan to get the third and final prism, which was still in the U.S.S.R. This was Megan's turf. Stefano had Megan coerce Larry into helping them smuggle the last prism into the U.S. After all, Larry was the son of Victor Chorvat, the inventor of the prisms.
Meanwhile,
Stefano felt a little melancholy. He had enjoyed Roman as an
adversary. Now, with him being out of commission, Stefano missed the
thrill of the hunt. He soon realized that he had an enemy as clever
and as cunning as Roman -- Marlena! He convinced one of his henchmen,
Jimmy Porterfield, to get involved in Marlena's life. Jimmy soon
decided to introduce Marlena to his godmother, Mrs. Lafferty. What
Marlena did not know was that Mrs. Lafferty was Stefano in disguise!
He had dressed up as an elderly woman to further examine his
opponent. And a worthy opponent she was. Unbeknownst to Stefano,
Marlena and Eugene had discovered information about the Triad
Experiment...and the location of his compound in
Venezuela.
The Triad Experiment was moving along very well. A Soviet named Bronski successfully managed to smuggle the last prism out of the Soviet Union through an ice-skating troupe. Soon after, however, Megan died; she was electrocuted in a hot tub at Chris Kositchek's gym, The Body Connection. Stefano was unaware of the fact that Larry had accidentally killed his daughter; he also didn't know of the explosive nature of the last prism. Apparently, Victor Chorvat had devised it so that it would explode if its ice covering was melted as revenge against America. Stefano was devastated by the loss of his "golden girl," and vowed revenge on the person who had killed her. He attended Megan's funeral dressed as Mrs. Lafferty and quietly grieved his daughter's passing.
Having lost another child, Stefano decided it was time to begin anew. He decided to kidnap the newborn twins Samantha and Eric Brady and raise them as DiMeras. He also wanted to kidnap Marlena so that she could be a mother to the children, and a wife to him. Stefano was able to kidnap the children and took them to his hideout in Caracas and kept them in a nursery. Stefano was unaware that Bo Brady went to rescue the children.
Of
course, he still needed to cure that pesky tumor. In February 1985,
the ice-skating troupe that had the prism arrived in Salem, to
perform a show at the Salem Civic Center. But those darn Bradys got
in the way of Stefano's plans once again. Hope had managed to
infiltrate the ice-skating troupe and joined the team. She had the
prism sewn on her costume's headpiece, but she didn't get in time and
had to go out on the ice with it on her head. Stefano knew, however,
and he ordered another flunky, Sonia Romanov, to retrieve the crystal
from Hope. After Sonia got it, she and Stefano made their way to the
rafters above the ice rink. Just as they were going to escape through
the roof and catch their helicopter, Marlena appeared brandishing a
gun. He did not think that Marlena was a real threat; he simply told
her to put down the gun and come along with him so that she could be
reunited with her kids. "My kids are safe at home in their beds," she
told him. Amidst tears, Marlena refused to let herself be a victim to
Stefano again. "You're never going to hurt anyone again," she said,
and shot Stefano in the stomach. Stefano dropped the prism when he
was shot. The prism, in turn, fell on some oily rags and began a
raging fire below them. Stefano then lost his balance; he grabbed
Marlena intending to take her with him, but she was saved by Bo.
Stefano fell off the catwalk and into the flames below. After the
fire was put out, a charred body was found among the ashes. It was
burned beyond recognition, but everyone assumed that the body was
Stefano's.
The poor people of Salem didn't exactly realize that Stefano wasn't dead, despite the fact that he'd already faked his death twice and his former employees were trying to send Marlena to jail for his murder. Stefano was alive and well, but nowhere near Salem. He secretly masterminded the return of Roman Brady through his former chauffeur, Petrov, the ISA Chief, George Nickerson, and Salem's new criminal kingpin, Victor Kiriakis. Roman was given plastic surgery, was branded with a Phoenix tattoo, brainwashed, and wrapped up in bandages. The ending result was an amnesiac who was brought to Salem by Nickerson and named "The Pawn." Eventually, this Pawn escaped, renamed himself John Black, and remembered that he was Roman Brady. Stefano oversaw all of this off-screen.
In late 1988, Stefano returned to wreak havoc once again. This time, he wanted his son back. Son? As it turned out, Stefano was the father of a young deaf boy who had been staying with Steve & Kayla Johnson, Benji Hawk. Stefano sent his operative Iago to Salem to achieve this goal. Iago just happened to be Shane Donovan's twin brother, Drew. While Drew unsuccessfully tried to take possession of Benji (and killed his mother, Ellen Hawk), Stefano also hatched a plan to take revenge on Roman and the Bradys. It seems that during the year that Stefano had had Roman in his possession, he had programmed him to be the ultimate assassin, with the help of a Karate master named Orion Hawk (who happened to be Benji's grandfather), and had commanded him to do various crimes. Only one word could trigger Roman's killer tendencies: "pagoda." Actually, even just the picture of a pagoda would put Roman in a trance. Now, Stefano was messing with Roman's head by sending him pictures of pagodas and making him believe that he'd murdered Ellen. Also, Stefano sent many clues to make Roman and Diana believe that Marlena, who had been presumed dead the year before, was really alive. His plans quickly turned more dastardly.
On
Halloween night, Stefano ordered Carrie to be kidnapped. He took her
to his island in the Bahamas and held her prisoner along with Orion,
who had tried to sabotage his plans to kidnap Benji. Stefano sent
Roman an anonymous note asking to exchange children, but Stefano
didn't plan on ever returning Carrie. Stefano was endeared with the
girl and wanted to raise her as his own daughter. Stefano finally
kidnapped Benji, who loved him very much, and managed to lure Roman,
Diana, Shane, Kim, Steve and Kayla to his island. Having captured all
of his enemies, Stefano treated his guests to a Thanksgiving Dinner,
during which he revealed everything: while Roman had worked for him,
Stefano had ordered him to kill a powerful enemy but Roman botched up
the hit. Roman had blown up the building in which Stefano's enemy
was, unaware of the fact that Benji had been in the building. It was
for this reason that Benji was deaf, and why Stefano wanted revenge.
Also, it came to light that during the time that Roman was presumed
dead, Shane had known all along that he was alive and in Stefano's
possession. Shane and the ISA had had the chance to retrieve Roman,
but instead retrieved Drew, who had also been in Stefano's
possession. This obviously caused great animosity among the family.
Stefano then put Roman under a Pagoda spell and ordered him to kill
everyone present. Diana was able to make Roman snap out of it. Roman
then went after Stefano, and the two met atop the very cliff they'd
been standing on 4 years earlier. This time, the struggled that
ensued sent Stefano off the cliff. Barely hanging from the edge,
Stefano warned Roman that Milo, his henchman, would shoot Diana if he
didn't help him back up. Roman reluctantly helped Stefano, and the
ruse continued.
Stefano continued to taunt Roman and finally put him under another trance, this time to shoot Diana. However, the trances had a weaker effect on Roman every time he went under, and so Diana was able to bring him out of it. However, Diana became separated from Roman in the moments after this, and Stefano was able to kidnap her, making it seem like she had died in an explosion. Stefano continued to taunt Roman after he returned to Salem, and finally lured him to his hideout outside of the city. There, he told him that he could have either Marlena or Diana; Roman was convinced that Marlena was dead and that this was all a game, and chose Diana. At this point, Benji, who had stowed away in Roman's car and had been witness to everything, finally believed what everyone had told him: his father was a bad man. Benji told Stefano this. Stefano, his plans dashed and hated by his own son, decided to escape aboard his helicopter.
Go to Part 2
of Stefano's history
The character of Stefano DiMera has
been played by the following:
Joseph Mascolo (1982-1985; 1988; 1993-2001)
Frank Fata (1991)