Sam DeStefano

Samuel DeStefano Jr. was born in Streator, Illinois, into the Italian-American family of Samuel DeStefano Sr. and Rosalie DeStefano (née Brasco), both of whom had been born in Italy and had immigrated to the United States in 1903.

Samuel "Mad Sam" DeStefano (September 13, 1909 − April 14, 1973) was an American mobster who was associated with the Chicago Outfit.

He was one of the organization's most notorious loan sharks and sociopathic killers.

Chicago-based Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, such as William F. Roemer Jr., considered DeStefano to be the worst torture-murderer in the history of the United States.

The Outfit used the mentally unstable and sadistic DeStefano for the torture-murders of Leo Foreman and Arthur Adler, the murder of DeStefano's younger brother, Michael DeStefano (an Outfit enforcer), and many others.

However, due to DeStefano's deranged mental state, the Outfit never let him become a made man.

At least one Outfit insider, Charles Crimaldi, claimed DeStefano was a devil worshipper.

One of the earliest reports on DeStefano is from September 12, 1926, when he was arrested in Chicago and turned over to the Niles Police Department as a fugitive for breaking out of jail.

On July 1, 1927, several hundred Westside gang members showed up threatening violence against a police sergeant for arresting DeStefano and shooting DeStefano's associate Harry Casgrovi.

In November 1927, DeStefano and fellow gang member Ralph Orlando were in court on charges of assaulting a 17-year-old girl.

The prosecution claimed that on August 19, 1927, the girl was forced into an automobile and driven to a garage where she was sexually assaulted by seven men.

Orlando and DeStefano were both found guilty of rape; Orlando was sentenced to ten years while DeStefano was sentenced to three.

In 1930, DeStefano joined the Forty-Two Gang, an infamous Chicago street gang led by future Outfit boss, Salvatore "Sam" Giancana.

DeStefano soon became involved in bootlegging and gambling.

In 1932, he was wounded by a policeman during a grocery store robbery.

In August of that year, DeStefano appeared at a hospital on Chicago's West Side with bullet wounds, which he refused to explain.

In 1933, DeStefano was convicted of a bank robbery in New Lisbon, Wisconsin and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

While in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in the 1940s DeStefano met Outfit members Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna.

Destefano Sr. was a laborer and, later on in life, a grocer and real estate salesman who died of natural causes in 1942, at age 77.

Rosalie was a housewife, who throughout her life was supported by the contributions of her children.

His sentence was commuted by Governor Julius Heil in December 1942 and he was released in December 1944.

DeStefano returned to prison in June 1947 for possessing counterfeit sugar ration stamps.

Later in 1947, DeStefano was released and obtained a civil service job in Chicago as a garbage dump foreman.

During the early 1950s, DeStefano became one of the most prominent loan shark operators in Chicago.

Using stolen money from his days as a bank robber, DeStefano began investing in Chicago real estate.

He bought a 24-suite apartment building and used the rent money as legitimate income to bribe local aldermen and other politicians.

By the mid-1950s, DeStefano's influence extended to city officials, prominent judges, and law enforcement officers.

DeStefano would brag "there wasn't any case he couldn't 'fix,'" and began offering his services accordingly.

His fees ranged from $800 for fixing a robbery case to $1,500 for an assault case.

DeStefano allegedly fixed a first-degree murder case for $20,000.

DeStefano's arrangements became so routine, corrupt police officers would escort suspects to DeStefano's house.

After DeStefano paid off the cops, the suspects would be "put on the juice" to DeStefano in exchange for his assistance.

In 1952, city officials discovered DeStefano had omitted his criminal record from his Civil Service application; however, they chose not to prosecute him.

She died in October 1960.

In all, the DeStefanos had seven children, three sons and four daughters.

Not long after his birth, Sam DeStefano and his family moved to Herrin, Illinois, where his father worked in the local coal mine.

After the labor-related turmoil surrounding the Herrin Massacre, the DeStefano family moved north to Chicago's Little Italy.

By the early 1960s, DeStefano was a leading loan shark for the Outfit.

DeStefano's loan shark victims included politicians, lawyers and small-time criminals; by the end of the decade, DeStefano was charging 20% to 25% a week in interest.

DeStefano would accept very high-risk debtors, such as drug addicts or business men who had already defaulted on previous debts.