Salvatore "Sam" DeStefano, Jr, was born in 1909 in Streator, in downstate LaSalle County, IL, to Salvatore Di Stefano and Rosalia Brasco, both of Villarosa, Enna. Some info online states that the DeStefanos had ancestry from Palermo, but actual documents confirm that both parents were from Villarosa, where they married in 1894 and where their first child, Giuseppina/Josephine was born in 1898 (she died in Clevalend in 1956). Salvatore entered the US in 1900 and Rosalia in 1903, bound for Mt Pleasant, PA, in the coal country outside of Pittsburgh, where the family lived initially. The family was in Illinois by 1906, when son James was born. In 1910, the family was living in Streator, where Salvatore worked as a laborer in a glass factory. Brother Mario was born in Herrin, Williamson County (near Marion and Johnston City), in 1915; in 1920, the family was living in Herrin, where Salvatore worked as a digger in the coal mines. It seems that the family relocated to Chicago in 1931 (per Rosalia's 1940 naturalization documents). Young Sam was already in Chicagoland by that time as a guest of the State of IL, as he was incarcerated in Joliet State Penitentiary in 1930. Sister Angeline (born in 1904 in Mt Pleasant, PA) was living in 1930 with her husband Lucio Casale, also of Villarosa, in Gary, IN (they later moved to Colorado Springs, where Angeline died in 1991). Mario, on the other hand, was incarcerated in the infamous Stateville Penitentiary in 1940 and 1950. The DeStefano settled in the Taylor St Patch, living on Hermitage near Polk and then on Fillmore near Loomis. In 1942, Salvatore, Sr, died in Bremen Township, in South Suburban Cook County; Rosalia died in Chicago in 1960.
After Sam, Jr, was murdered in 1973, the Tribune reported that Outfit associate Chuck Crimaldi (who wrote a book which is out of print that I haven't been able to acquire) claimed that Sam was kicking up directly to Accardo for decades from his massive juice loan operation. Crimaldi claimed that Sam DeStefano and Salvatore "Sam Lewis" Luisi pioneered the juice loan racket on Chicago's Westside in the 1950s. Crimaldi further claimed that DeStefano was not a "syndicate man", but rather was "independent", that his juice loan operation was completely separate from any "syndicate functions", and that Accardo took a cut from it not because Accardo or "syndicate" money was invested in it but because Sam had a "concession" from the Outfit to operate his juice racket (which aligns with my theory that racket operations like this were essentially "licensed" to operate by the Outfit). Crimaldi further stated that most other Outfit members, apart from Accardo and Ricca, did not care for or respect Sam Destefano, but that his "concession" to operate juice was due to the fact that he had performed many "favors" for the Outfit over the years. Additionally, Crimaldi claimed that DeStefano was close to Pat Marcy, as he had performed election work for the 1st Ward Democratic Party operations, including, allegedly, sticking up polling places and destroying ballots for opponent candidates.
Brother Mario DeStefano, who we know was a made member under the Battaglia crew, died in Oak Brook in 1973 of natural causes.
