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Teresa Vetter proudly holds the delicious distinction of being Edge's first centerpiece villainess. Long before women were burning their bras and marching with picket signs, Teresa fought for gender equality in Monticello's male-dominated underworld. The leader in a long line of memorable villainesses, Teresa was the coldest, baddest, most ruthless of them all.
Indeed, scheming, calculating, frosty blonde Teresa was so cold she was positively glacial. Married to mob-lord George Vetter, Terry schemed to knock him off and become Queen of the Numbers Racket in Monticello. With the assistance of partner-in-crime-cum-lover Victor Carlson, she icily poisoned her husband to death, then cooly stabbed double-crossing Victor in the back with a letter opener when he "married" Judy Marceau and planned to blow town with the booty. Terry cackled with glee while poor, pathetic Judy went on trial for Victor's murder, remained unfazed as Mike Karr doggedly pursued evidence of her guilt, and merely counter-blackmailed corrupt DA Austin Johnson, who attempted to threaten a confession out of her. Nay, Terry hardly batted an eye when chased by the cops into a deserted mine shaft, where seven tons of dirt promptly fell upon her cold-blooded head.
Like Teresa Vetter before her, Eve Morris had an unfortunate affinity for cheating men and sharp objects. A lonely, cultured widow, she was attracted to hard-boiled newspaper journalist Malcolm Thomas. He returned her attention, but also had eyes for sweet lil' Cookie Pollock. After months of leading both women on, Malcolm married Cookie on the q.t. - but when Eve found out, she furiously plunged a pair of scissors right into his two-timing back. The police arrived to discover Cookie standing over Malcolm's cold body, and she soon found herself on trial for murder. Meanwhile, Eve beat it out of Monticello faster than the airline agent could say "Mexico." Much later, with poor Cookie's neck practically in the noose, Eve returned from South of the Border. In a remarkably convenient courtroom confession, she declared she should have killed Cookie... not Malcolm. Eve grabbed Exhibit One, made a mad, desperate lunge for her rival, and was carted off - never to be seen again. I like to think Eve is sharing a cell somewhere with Teresa Vetter, commiserating about their bad luck with men.
Poor Laura Hillyer. Laura was one of Edge's most tragic villainesses. In fact, she was much less a villainess than a spoiled, self-centered socialite. Married to the obscenely wealthy, but oh-so-boring Orin Hillyer, Laura fell into a mad love affair with the heartless Rick Oliver, Monticello's favorite disc jockey. Rick seduced Laura, all the while plotting to murder Orin and steal the Hillyer fortune. When confronted with the truth, Laura picked up a conveniently placed revolver and emptied all six bullets into the bastard. Were that the end of the story, nobody could have blamed Laura for her actions. Unfortunately, Martha Marceau -stalwart wife of Chief of Police William Marceau- got tapped for the crime and ended up on trial for murder. Laura couldn't bear the thought of prison but also didn't want an innocent woman to pay for her mistake. She did her best to help Martha, but it wasn't enough. In the eleventh hour, Laura confessed her sins and sped off with the police in hot pursuit. Looking divine in a designer dress and sable coat, she faced the ultimate judgment in a fiery cliffside car crash -a sad and tragic end to a sad and tragic character.
Although these two harpies didn't work together, they had a common goal: getting rid of Nicole Travis.
After losing her husband and child in a car-bombing arranged by Ben Travis, Stephanie sought revenge against his daughter Nicole. Stephanie went to work at McGrath's (Nicole's boutique) and pretended to be a friend. However, at night she dressed in men's clothing, made threatening phone calls, sent poisoned chocolates, and quoted Shakespeare while plotting to kill Nicole. Meanwhile, Duane Stewart, Nicole's ex-husband, followed her to Monticello which fueled the ire of his bitchy new wife Pamela. Pam stalked Nicole, too. One night, both Stephanie and Pamela converged at McGrath's with murderous intentions. Pamela mistook Stephanie for Nicole, stabbing her in the back with a knife. When the police arrived, it was Nicole who stood over Stephanie's body, knife in hand. Trading her miniskirts and go-go boots for a prison uniform, Nicole suffered through a spectacular murder trial. Eventually, she was exonerated when Pamela Stewart was proven to be Stephanie's assailant. Nicole not only became a nicer person, she got a future husband in her handsome attorney...Adam Drake.
Elly Jo sauntered into Monticello with a big grin and syrupy Southern drawl. A distant relative of Orin Hillyer's late wife Julie Jamison, Elly Jo spent most of her misspent youth in Appalachian poverty. Ostensibly, she arrived to care for Orin, who was recovering from a deadly plane crash that took Julie's life and left him incapacitated. Orin's daughter Liz Hillyer Fields was instantly suspicious of sweet-as-pie Elly... and with good reason. Not only was she carrying on with ne'er-do-well chauffeur Lennie Small, she was also plotting to steal Orin's hefty fortune with aide-de-camp Simon Jessup, a fake spiritualist. First, Elly arranged a fatal fall down the stairs for pregnant Liz, hoping to usurp her position as Orin's primary beneficiary. When that didn't work out, Elly agreed to let Simon hypnotize Liz into driving her car off a cliff near Claybank, the family estate. In the end, Liz caught on to the scheme, tricked Elly into driving with her, then pretended to be under Jessup's hypnotic trance again. Preferring the curb to a cliff, Elly leapt to her death from the speeding car, precipitating one of Edge's most memorable stunts: Beefy stuntman Joe Dismas, donning a bleached-blonde wig ( an outrageously wavy do about five inches shorter than Dorothy Lyman's own straight locks) and jumping in slow-motion from a grotesque Impala. Had there been any real justice, Elly Jo should have at least been allowed to take that final fall out of a Mercedes Benz!
With a great name like Winter Austen, you just KNEW she was gonna be memorable, and we weren't disappointed. Like Laura Hillyer before her, Winter was more tragic than intentionally bad. Forced into pornography as a runaway teen, she thought she'd finally found peace and happiness in Monticello with upstanding DA Logan Swift. How quickly things change. First, Winter lost Logan to the seductive, scheming Raven... then former porn producer Wade Meecham blew into town. Wade viciously threatened to destroy Logan's political career by showing Winter's porn debut "Lacy Lady" in a local theatre, blackmailed Winter into the sack, then further humiliated her by revealing that he'd secretly videotaped their sexual encounters. Winter commiserated with arsonist/porn projectionist Tank Jarvis, himself a victim of Wade's blackmail. No one in Monticello was really surprised when Wade was discovered shot to death in his residential hotel room.
In typical Edge fashion, it was poor Winter who was arrested and placed on trial for the crime, which had seemingly been commited by Tank. Things looked even worse when the prosecution received a videotape that clearly showed Winter standing over Wade's corpse only seconds after the murder. Then, just as the jury was getting ready to deliver a guilty verdict, Mike Karr noticed Winter was wearing a different kind of coat collar on the tape than eye-witnesses reported seeing. The tape was a fake. It was enough to save Winter, who was the first and only Edge character to actually receive a "not-guilty" verdict. Of course, such a break with tradition seemed too good to be true - and it was. Imagine audience surprise when it was revealed that she and Tank had faked the tape themselves, and Winter really HAD murdered Wade!!!
In no time at all sweet, victimized Winter suddenly blossomed into a demented murderess, intent on eliminating anyone who got in her way. To keep her secret safe, she pushed Tank off a roof to his death, then stalked Nicole, who unwittingly had proof of the crime. It all came to a dramatic end at the WMON tv studio, where Winter trapped Nicole, threatening her with a preposterously large pair of scissors. The two fought on a catwalk high above the studio floor, then Winter literally went "off the edge." As she lay dying in the hospital, she told Logan she did everything for him and begged him to tell her that he loved her. He didn't... making Winter Austen the most sympathetic, tragic villainess in Edge of Night history.
Nola arrived in Monticello, freshly released from a brief respite at a Betty Fordesque clinic. In truth, she had escaped and wouldn't have known the Twelve Steps if she tumbled down them. Drinking was this gal's raison detre - that and wreaking havoc all over town. A former movie star, Nola desperately clung to disinterested director/husband Owen Madison. When he got the hots for lady cop Deborah Saxon, Nola went absolutely insane with jealousy. First, she sent Deborah a box of chocolates, which were generously laced with bug spray! When that failed, Nola torched a movie set, hoping to trap Deborah in the fire. But the plan backfired, and family friend Eddie Vaughn died instead. Indefatigable, Nola simply disguised herself as elderly Martha Corey, moved into an apartment next to Deborah, and slipped barbiturates into steaming pots of soup. The plan worked for a while: Deborah became sicker and sicker. When Dr. Miles Cavanaugh discovered Martha Corey's true identity, Nola dumped amphetamines into his water cooler. While Miles thought he was losing his mind, Nola turned her attention to seductive louse Eliot Dorn. Unfortunately, Eliot's wife Margo wasn't keen to give him a divorce, so Nola tackled another role: murderess. She went to the Dorn penthouse and bludegeoned Margo to death with a fireplace poker! Eventually, Nola was caught -by rival Deborah Saxon, no less- and taken away by the police. It was never really explained what happened to her after that, but it's probably safe to assume her next role was in "Prisoner: Cell Block H."
Sweet Molly Sherwood. Faithful housekeeper of Dr. Leo Gault and surrogate mother to his "disturbed" daughter Emily. Molly wasn't inherently evil; she just wanted to keep her promise to Leo that she'd take care of Emily after he was gone. Naturally, Leo dropped dead within minutes of extracting this promise, which proved to be fatal for several Monticelloites. Molly's first mistake was letting Draper and Emily believe that Draper was really Emily's long-lost husband Kirk Michaels. It almost got them killed when former associates of the real Kirk kidnapped them and held them hostage at an amusement park. Once the truth came out, reuniting Draper with his wife April, nutty Molly spiked a sugar bowl with posion to get rid of April but ended up bumping off Nadine Scott instead! Then Eliot Dorn got too close to the truth about Nadine's death, so Molly stabbed him in the back. This led to subsequent attacks on Cliff Nelson, and Raven Alexander. Molly's reign of terror finally came to an end one dark, stormy night. Having trapped April in the Scott's Oakdale home, Molly planned to hang her from the basement rafters, making the death look like a suicide. It nearly succeeded until last "victim" Raven popped up very much alive, and a terrified Molly fell to her death down a flight of stairs. It's too bad. Molly wasn't really villainous... she was just crazy as all get out.
Mix Molly Sherwood's insanity with Denise Cavanaugh's evil, and you've got the recipe for Nora Fulton. Arriving as an executive secretary to Nicole Cavanaugh, Nora seemed to have a hidden agenda and immediately started making trouble for everyone. Turns out that Nora was actually the deranged Roxanne Walker, Gunther Wagner's former girlfriend (the one who saw "all sorts of crawly things coming through the window"). She blamed Miles Cavanaugh for Gunther's death, clinging to the irrational belief that the good doctor intentionally allowed Gunther to die. Nora vowed to destroy the Cavanaugh family, and she didn't care who got caught in the crossfire. She committed a plethora of sins: arson (Sid's Tavern), hit-and-run (Mitzi Martin), attempted murder (Barbara Montgomery), and blackmail (Sky Whitney and Spencer Varney). She got even with the Cavanaughs, too, driving Miles to alcoholism and accusing him of attempted rape. In short, everybody in Monticello hated Nora. Even fair-minded, good-natured Nancy Karr couldn't muster a kind word for her. It came as no surprise when Nora's lifeless body was discovered in the WMON studio, a TV cable wrapped around the evil throat that muttered a classic, delciously ironic exit line: "You're about to find out what hell is really like..."
