Sam DeStefano

Infobox Person
name=Sam DeStefano


image_size=150px
caption=CPD mugshot of Mad Sam DeStefano
birth_date=birth date|1909|9|13|mf=y
birth_place=Southern Illinois, U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1973|4|14|1909|9|13|mf=y
death_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Samuele "Mad Sam" DeStefano (September 13, 1909 — April 14, 1973) was an American gangster who became one of the Chicago Outfit's most notorious loan sharks and sociopathic killers. Chicago-based 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 and Outfit enforcer and fellow loan shark William "Action" Jackson. However, due to DeStefano's deranged mental state, The Outfit never let him become a Made man. At least one Outfit insider eyewitness claimed that DeStefano was a Devil worshipper. [May, Allan, "'Mad' Sam DeStefano: The Mob's Marquis DeSade (Part 2)," pg. 2; americanmafia.com]

Early years

Born in Southern Illinois, DeStefano moved to Little Italy in Chicago, with his family as a teenager. He suffered from malignant narcissism.Fact|date=September 2008 In 1927, at age 18, DeStefano was convicted of rape and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Released in 1930, DeStefano joined the Forty-Two Gang, an infamous Chicago street gang led by future Outfit boss, Salvatore Giancana. DeStefano soon became involved in bootlegging and gambling. In 1932, he was wounded during a grocery store robbery. In 1934, Stefano was convicted of a bank robbery in New Lisbon, Wisconsin and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Released in 1944, he returned to prison in 1947 for selling counterfeit sugar ration stamps. While in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, DeStefano met Outfit members Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna. Later in 1947, DeStefano was released and obtained a Civil Service job in Chicago as a garbage dump foreman. In 1952, city officials discovered that DeStefano had omitted his criminal record from the Civil Service application; however, they chose not to prosecute him. He also became the uncle of Outfit mobsters Rocco DeStefano and Samuel DeStefano, who was named after "Mad Sam."Fact|date=July 2008

Political fixer

During the early 1950s, DeStefano had become a major loan shark operator, in Chicago, with his brother Mario Anthony DeStefano. With money gained during his days as a bank robber for the 42 Gang in the early 1930s, "Mad Sam" began investing in real estate. He bought a 24-suite apartment building and used the rent money as legitimate income to pay off 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 that, "there wasn't any case he couldn't 'fix,'" and began offering his services accordingly. His fees ranged from $800 for a robbery to $1,500 for an assault. DeStefano was also suspected of "fixing" a first-degree murder case for $20,000. DeStefano's arrangements became so routine that 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.

Loan shark

DeStefano's loan shark victims included politicians and lawyers as well as 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. The reason was simple: DeStefano enjoyed it when debtors didn't pay on time. He could then bring them to the sound-proof torture chamber he built in his basement. Other gangsters said that the sadistic DeStefano would actually foam at the mouth while torturing his victims. From time to time, DeStefano would also kill those who actually owed him very little so that those who owed him a lot would hear the word of DeStefano's sacrifice kill and pay up. One of the reasons that DeStefano probably lasted so long in Chicago, despite his behavior being too crazy even for Outfit standards, was because he made a fortune for his bosses. He made so much money that for a time Giancana and Antonino ("Tony," "Joe Batters," "The Big Tuna") Accardo gave DeStefano some of their own money to put out on the street for loansharking purposes to make money for them.

Bloody trail

In 1955, Giancana ordered DeStefano and his brother Mario to murder their younger brother Michael DeStefano, a mob wannabe and drug addict. On September 27, 1955, the body of Michael was found shot in a car trunk in a West Side neighborhood. When police questioned DeStefano, he allegedly began laughing uncontrollably. He was later released due to his political influence and a lack of evidence.

By the early 1960s, DeStefano was a leading loan shark and narcotics trafficker for The Outfit. In 1963, DeStefano had a violent argument with real estate agent and rival loan shark Leo Foreman. To finally get DeStefano out of his office, Foreman threw DeStefano out, and then Foreman went into hiding from DeStefano for some time. Later on, Foreman was summoned to DeStefano's home after being tricked into believing that DeStefano was letting "bygones be bygones." Upon his arrival, Foreman was taken to the basement torture chamber and brutalized for hours by Charles Crimaldi, Anthony Spilotro, and brother Mario. When DeStefano finally arrived in the basement, he supposedly screamed at Foreman, "I told you I'd get you. Greed got you killed!," as he died on November 19, 1963.

In another incident Peter Cappelletti, a collector for DeStefano, kept $25,000 from a loan shark victim and fled Chicago. DeStefano's men located Cappelletti in Wisconsin and brought him back to Chicago. DeStefano chained him to a radiator and tortured him for three days. On the last day DeStefano invited Cappelletti's family to Mario's restaurant for a banquet. While the banquet was going on, Cappelletti was secretly being tortured again in the back. Finally, the severely burned Cappelletti was dragged into the dining area. DeStefano then made the man's family urinate on him in unison. Following the dinner, the family quickly paid back the money Cappelletti stole from DeStefano.

As for William "Action" Jackson, he was 300 pounds of Outfit enforcer and loan shark that was thought to have become an informant for the FBI. However, Jackson was not a snitch for anyone. Yet, he was taken to DeStefano's basement torture chamber where he lasted three brutal days on a hook before he died.

Final justice

In 1965, DeStefano was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to three-to-five years in prison. On February 22, 1972, he was also sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for threatening the life of a witness against him. The witness was mobster turned informant Crimaldi, who was an accomplice in the Foreman murder. DeStefano threatened him in the elevator of the Chicago Dirksen Federal Building. DeStefano would soon be indicted in the Foreman murder, along with the rest of his crew.

As in his previous trials, DeStefano had raised an undue amount of public interest with his bizarre behavior. In earlier court appearances, he demanded to represent himself, appeared in court dressed in pajamas, shouted through bullhorns to address courtrooms, rambled incoherently; and, he did likewise at the Foreman trial. Now, The Outfit bosses were worried about DeStefano, that he would not only sabotage his high-profile court case but would also jeopardize the case against his own Outfit crew. So, in a secret meeting with Outfit bosses, DeStefano's crew got the "ok" to "whack" "Mad Sam." On April 14 1973, at the start of a meeting with his crew, DeStefano was shot twice with a shotgun in the garage of his Northwest Side home, allegedly by Spilotro, hitting DeStefano with one round in the heart and one round ripping off one arm at the elbow, fatally wounding him. Brother Mario was then convicted of complicity in Foreman's murder and received 20-to-40 years in prison; Spilotro was acquitted. Although Mario and Spilotro were suspects in Sam's murder, no one was ever charged.

Notes

References

*Devito, Carlo. "Encyclopedia of International Organized Crime". New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8160-4848-7
*Kelly, Robert J. "Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States". Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia". New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3

Further reading

*"A Report on Chicago Crime" Chicago: Chicago Crime Commission Reports, 1954-1968.
*Chiocca, Olindo Romeo. "Mobsters and Thugs: Quotes from the Underworld". Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2000. ISBN 1-55071-104-0

External links

* [http://crimemagazine.com/destefano.htm "Mad Sam" DeStefano: The Mob's Marquis de Sade] (Part 1) by Allan May
* [http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=106 The Free Information Society - Sam DeStefano Biography] by Jonathan Dunder
* [http://www.cemeteryrecords.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6996808&pt=Sam%20'Mad%20Sam'%20DeStefano FindAGrave.com - Sam "Mad Sam" DeStefano]
* [http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_179.html Mad Sam] by John William Tuohy
* [http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/MadSam.html Gangsters Incorporated: Sam "Mad Sam" DeStefano] by David Amoruso
* [http://gamblingmagazine.com/articles/53/53-11.htm Of Pajama Dons, Bugs and Prime Ministers: Insanity in the Underworld] by John Tuohy