Sam DeStefano

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Sam "Mad Sam" DeStefano (born September 13, 1909 in Streator , Illinois , † April 14, 1973 in Chicago ) was an Italian-American gangster who was used by the Chicago outfit as a loan shark and contract killer.

The outfit used the mentally unstable, sadistic DeStefano for the torture murders of Leo Foreman and Arthur Adler , the murder of DeStefano's younger brother Michael DeStefano , the loan shark and outfit member William "Action" Jackson and many other people. Due to his unstable psyche, DeStefano was never accepted as a full member of the Mafia. An insider of the outfit, Charles Crimaldi, claimed DeStefano was a Satanist .

The FBI -Agent William F. Roemer, Jr. described DeStefano as the worst torturers and killers in US history.

Early years

DeStefano was born in Streator , Illinois . The parents - Samuel DeStefano, Sr. and Rosalie DeStefano (née Brasco) - immigrated from Sicily to the United States in 1903. As a teenager, DeStefano moved with his parents to Chicago, where the father led a law-abiding life as a greengrocer and real estate dealer in the Little Italy neighborhood and died in 1942 at the age of 77. In October 1960 his mother also died, who had taken care of the children as a housewife all her life. In total, DeStefano had five siblings.

In 1930 DeStefano joined the 42 gang , where he met other later mafia giants. He committed numerous crimes, such as alcohol smuggling, bank robbery, robbery, illegal gambling. In 1934 he was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment for bank robbery, after 10 years he was released in 1944 and was convicted in 1947 for counterfeiting tokens. In Leavenworth Prison, he met outfit members Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna . In 1952 he worked for the city administration and although the forgery of his certificates was discovered, he was still employed.

Debt collector

DeStefano got into the loan business in the early 1950s and became one of the first loan sharks in Chicago. To camouflage, he invested money from his raids in legal real estate deals. DeStefano managed to influence local politicians, claiming there was nothing he couldn't achieve by paying bribes.

He himself kept a regular price list that ranged from assault to murder. Police officers are even said to have brought him victims.

In the early 1960s, DeStefano was a leading debt collector for the outfit. In addition to petty criminals, the debtors included politicians and lawyers. The required interest rates were enormous; up to 20-25% interest per week was common and DeStefano enjoyed it when debtors could not pay as he could then torture and murder them. For this purpose he had set up a soundproof torture chamber in the basement of his house. Former accomplices later testified that DeStefano would have foamed with excitement as he tormented his victims. Sometimes debtors are said to have been murdered simply as a deterrent.

Under normal circumstances, the outfit would not have tolerated this excessive violence, but DeStefano brought a lot of money into the coffers of the outfit with his business. Giancana and Tony Accardo are said to have invested in these businesses themselves.

Blood trail

In 1961, loan shark William "Action" Jackson was falsely suspected by outfit of being an FBI informant. DeStefano kidnapped and tortured him with knives. He was also hung alive on a meat hook, which then led to death. In November 1963, he murdered Leo Foreman, a former colleague

Peter Cappelletti, an assistant to DeStefano, fled Chicago with $ 25,000. DeStefano found him and chained him to a heater and tortured him for three days. Then he dragged the burned body to a restaurant where Cappelletti's family was staying. DeStefano forced the family to urinate on cappeletti.

Ultimately, nobody around DeStefano was safe, he is said to have kidnapped a passerby, brought him home and forced him to have oral sex with DeStefano's wife. This was intended as a punitive action against his wife.

The end

In 1965 DeStefano was sentenced to 3-5 years in prison. On February 22, 1972, he was sentenced again to three and a half years in prison for threatening the life of a witness. The witness was Crimaldi, an accomplice in Foreman's murder. DeStefano became known to the public for his bizarre appearances. He defended himself, wore pajamas, trumpeted through horns, and babbled unintelligible. Outfit bosses were starting to worry, fearful that DeStefano wasn't just playing the madman. They feared that it could harm other defendants and asked his crew to get rid of him. On April 14, 1973 DeStefano was invited to a meeting of his crew. Spilotro waited for him in a garage in Chicago and shot him twice with a shotgun. The right arm was torn off under the elbow and the shot in the chest killed him instantly.

literature

  • 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
  • Dark, Tony. A Mob of His Own: Samuel Mad Sam DeStefano and the Chicago Mob's Juice Rackets , HH Productions, Chicago, 2008. ISBN 978-0-615-17496-9
  • McCluskie, Norma. "Decade of Fear", Lulu.com, LaVergne, Tennessee, 2010. ISBN 978-0-557-44970-5
  • 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

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May, Allan: 'Mad Sam' DeStefano: The Mob's Marquis de Sade (Part 2) . In: americanmafia.com . May 17, 1999. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  2. ^ Roemer, Jr., William F., The Enforcer (1994), p. 12
  3. ↑ ibid, p. 39
  4. ↑ Touhy, John William, "Mad Sam," December 2001 americanmafia.com
  5. ↑ Sam DeStefano's murder scene
  6. ^ Roemer, Jr., William F., The Enforcer (1994), p. 90
  7. ^ Roemer, Jr., William F., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather (1995), p. 271
personal data
SURNAME DeStefano, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mad Sam (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-American gangster
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Streator , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1973
Place of death Chicago