Mitch Laurence biography written by Richard
Schwertfager
Mitchell Laurence, the
unscrupulous religious fanatic, arrived in Llanview in the early part of
1985 – he was after Tina Roberts. Mitch arrived in Llanview with a hidden
agenda, only half of which would be revealed before he was “killed” in 1986.
Mitch took
solace in the Lord – a term that would go beyond the meaning of the
conventional notion of “God.” Mitch was skilled in the art of brainwashing,
rendering his whole congregation under his power of persuasion.
Mitch seduced
Tina and continued to have a sexual hold over her. The only reason Mitch was
interested in Tina was because she was rich. Mitch then found out that Tina
would inherit Victor Lord’s entire estate – should Viki suffer from a
reoccurrence of her DID.
Mitch schemed up a plan to kill Clint, hoping
this would bring out Niki – thus giving all of the Lord fortune to Tina.
Ironically, it was Tina who botched up Mitch’s plan. Tina caught wind of
Mitch’s plan and opted to put an end to it…and him. Tina grabbed the gun
away from Mitch, Mitch tried to get it back as Niki lay in a drunken stupor.
Mitch regained control of the gun and fired at, who he thought was Clint. It
was a man named Harry O’Neill who was shot and killed.
Unfortunately for Tina, Mitch had an airtight
alibi for his whereabouts during the murder and Niki was now Viki and
recalled nothing of the events that transpired that evening. Eventually Niki
reemerged and confirmed it was Mitch who killed Harry. Mitch was caught and
sent to prison.
In 1986, Mitch was released from prison and
returned to Llanview. Mitch returned as a “born-again evangelist” with a
plan to make Tina’s life miserable. He used the power of persuasion and,
with the help of drugs, recruited younger women into his cult. Mitch would
get these women to do his dirty work.
The only
person that would not fall victim to his ways was Victoria Lord, whom
dismissed Mitch as soon as she realized what a scoundrel he was. In
retaliation, Mitch drugged Viki and raped her. It wasn’t known until years
later that, Mitch has impregnated Viki while she was already pregnant! Viki
had twins and didn’t even know it, unfortunately at the time her alter ego
Niki was in control.
A young news
reporter, Cassie Callison, caught wind of Mitch’s cult and began an
investigation. Mitch knew that Cassie’s mother, Dorian Cramer Lord Callison,
was loaded – he eventually found out Cassie’s trust fund toppled a million
dollars. Mitch set his sights on wooing her, Cassie pretended to fall victim
of his charm just to get information. When Mitch wanted to sleep with
Cassie, she refused. Mitch took drastic measures and attempted to rape her.
For fear of
her life and her daughter’s life, Dorian took a hefty swing with a
candlestick and cracked Mitch in the back of the head. Mitch was presumed
dead and Dorian stood on trail and was convicted of murder – lucky for
Dorian, an audio-cassette tape was found that proved Dorian acted in self
defense. Finally, the terrible reign of Mitchell Laurence was over…or so
everyone thought.
In 2002,
Mitch resurrected and returned to Llanview to finish out what he had started
nearly twenty years before. Mitch, secretly, had made a deal with the devil
himself. Victor Lord, who was presumed dead in 1976, was really alive.
Living a secluded life at a private ranch. Victor’s health was failing and
he was in need of a heart. The only way he could get a heart was to take one
– from his granddaughter. Mitch adopted the name “Michael Lazarus” and
resumed his conniving ways.
“Michael” met
Natalie Balsom and wooed her into marrying him. Natalie tried to divorce him
after learning who Michael really was but he had other plans. Mitch took
Natalie, against her will, to meet with Victor Lord. Victor signed over his
will to Mitch, in return Mitch was to transplant his granddaughter’s heart
into his body. The operation was cut short after Viki barged in, almost
having a heart attack herself after realizing that her father was still
alive.
Mitch was
taken back to Llanview and put in jail but released on a technicality. Mitch
continued his devious workings and set his sights on getting rid of Troy
MacIver. He concocted a plan where he brainwashed Lindsay Rappaport into
killing her ex-lover, who was now involved with Blair Cramer – Dorian’s
niece. Lindsay, with gun in hand, snuck into Blair’s apartment with the
intent of killing Troy. Lindsay raised the gun and aimed at Troy’s back, she
pulled the trigger and Troy slumped over. Her job was done. Lindsay
approached the body and realized that it wasn’t Troy, but her ex-husband Sam
Rappaport.
Mitch was then reunited with one of his
faithful followers, Allison Perkins. It was Allison who revealed to Viki
that she had twins. Niki confirmed this by telling Viki she was “more of a
mother than she knew.” It turns out that Natalie Balsom was really Natalie
Buchanan, now Natalie Laurence. Natalie’s twin sister, Jessica Buchanan, was
Mitch’s daughter. Viki couldn’t believe that Jessica was Mitch’s daughter,
she quickly sent Jessica away for fear of what Mitch might do to her.
It was also revealed that, in 1985, Mitch had
brainwashed Allison into a baby-switching scheme. Mitch made Allison break
into Llanfair and steal Viki’s baby – who was really Natalie but everyone
thought she was Jessica. Allison was to replace Viki’s baby, Natalie, with
the other twin, Jessica – the twin that Mitch “let” Walter Balsom keep.
Walter was the doctor who delivered Viki’s
babies. In exchange for his silence, Mitch agreed to let Walter keep one of
the babies he had delivered. After learning that Walter had his daughter,
through a paternity test, Mitch concocted the baby-switching scheme. With
everything that Allison did, everything was in place – Viki’s baby, Natalie,
was in the possession of Walter and Jessica was now with Viki. The only
reason for the switch was because Mitch wanted his daughter to grow
up in the luxury that the Buchanan’s would give her.
Mitch kept in
constant contact with a mysterious woman, who was basking in the sun on the
West coast. This mysterious woman heard of Mitch’s installation in Victor’s
will and planned to “get what she deserved.” The mysterious woman finally
arrived in Llanview – it was none other than Dorian.
Dorian heard
of Mitch’s plan to acquire Victor Lord’s estate. She devised a plan to marry
Mitch and swipe everything out from under him, everything she thought that
she deserved. Mitch was too smart and conniving to let that happen, though
he did not divorce Dorian their marriage was less than perfect.
Mitch then
concocted a plan to get rid of Todd Manning, heir to Victor Lord’s estate.
Mitch and his followers beat Todd to, what they thought was death, and threw
him to the side of the road. Todd’s on-again-off-again bride, Blair, caught
wind of this and sought revenge on Mitch.
Jessica returned to Llanview and wanted
absolutely nothing to do with her father, while Mitch tried desperately to
win her love and affection. Mitch almost had it after Jessica caused him to
go blind, by accidentally pushing Mitch into a shelf and a cleaning chemical
streamed down his face into his eyes. Jessica felt horrible after this
accident and thought the only way to justify her guilt was to try to become
amicable with Mitch.
Taking advantage of his blindness, Blair and
Dorian concocted a plan to make Mitch go insane. They would constantly ring
the doorbell and claim they heard nothing, they would play a tape of someone
screaming only to tell Mitch that he was hearing things. Finally they lured
Mitch into an abandoned theater and saw him take a plunge into the Llantano
River.
After thinking Mitch was dead, Dorian had
Mitch’s lawyer read his will. To Dorian’s surprise, Mitch left everything to
Jessica. Dorian as furious, the estate that she worked so hard to get was
taken away from her with a single piece of paper. Jessica returned the
estate to her mother and tried to go on with her life.
Mitch was found and nursed back to health by a
complete stranger. Mitch was rendered unconscious in the days following his
recovery, but soon regained his composure. Mitch was able to see again, he
opened his eyes to see a familiar face – his brother Walker Laurence was the
one who had found him and nursed him back to health. Only Walker wasn’t
Walker, he was Todd Manning in disguise. It was Todd’s plan to get Mitch
back for what he did to him.
Mitch returned to Llanview and kidnapped
Jessica, he took her to another Victor Lord hideaway – Lion’s Heart. Lion’s
Heart was in the middle of the dense Llanview forest. After keeping her
drugged and locked up for months, Antonio Vega – Jessica’s boyfriend – and
Bo Buchanan – Jessica’s uncle – found Victor’s secret hideout. Mitch was
brought back to Llanview and charged with the murder of Sam Rappaport.
Mitch was able to pay off a police officer to
free him from his cell. Mitch made his way down to the docks where,
coincidentally, Jessica was visiting. Mitch pleaded his case to Jessica,
begging her to return to Lion’s Heart with him so they could be a real
family. Jessica told Mitch that she wanted nothing to do with him and
started to run away. Mitch grabbed Jessica to stop her from running, Jessica
spun around and grabbed at the first thing she could get her hands on – a
lead pipe. Jessica swung the pipe and Mitch fell to the ground. He was,
again, dead.
The suspect list grew rapidly, everyone in
town wanted Mitch dead – but nobody knew who had the guts to do it. Jessica,
traumatized by the event, completely blacked it out from her memory and
recalled nothing from that night. Walker/Todd had the body immediately
cremated so no autopsy could be performed.
Jessica slowly began to remember the events
that unfolded the night Mitch was killed. She vividly remembered striking
her father over the head and killing him. Jessica turned her confession in
to Bo, who happens to be her uncle and the commissioner of police. Bo
in turn tore up the confession, thus putting the wrath of Mitchell Laurence
to an end once and for all.
| 