Bruno Vizzini

Bruno Vizzini is a non-canonical character created for the 1993 ITV adaptation of The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman. He is a wealthy Italian, living in London, who owns the dealership for the Eliso Freccia marque of sports cars.

As events in the episode unfold, it emerges that he is the victim of blackmail by one Count Foscatini because he had evidence that Vizzini had given financial support to some anti-fascist organisations. This would have endangered his business interests even in Britain. Vizzini hired Mario Ascanio to pay off Foscatinii and recover the documents. Since nothing more was heard from Ascanio, Vizzini believed that Ascanio had betrayed him--that he had killed Foscatini and then taken the money as well as the documents and had then decided to go into business for himself. Hercule Poirot was able to reassure him that while it was true that Ascanio had decided to go his own way, he did not succeed and that he had burnt the documents before he had been arrested by Scotland Yard. Ascanio did not, however, have Vizzini's money.

Vizzini does not appear in the original story. There it was an unnamed Italian of high position who was being blackmailed. But this person was in Italy, not Britain, and the topic of the blackmail is not given. Also, it appears that Ascanio there acted with the blessing of the Italian government whereas in this case, Vizzini's might have gotten in trouble with the government were his anti-fascist links revealed.