Frankie (Hell bent for Whiskey)

*For the video game version of this character, see* Frankie the Fly (GG&C series)

## Frank Pellegrinaggio

"No, no, you're wrong, man! It musta been someone else!"

### Aliases

Frank the Snitch
Frankie

### Affiliation

The Costellis
Belluccio's Whiskey and Beer (formerly)
CPD (formerly)

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

> «Listen to me, Vinnie! I **swear**, I ain't got nothing to do with it, *you got the wrong guy*!» -Frank adamantly pleading himself guiltless
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**Frank Pellegrinaggio**, also known as **Frankie**, is a minor character and antagonist featured in the short animated film Hell Bent for Whiskey. He is a member of the Belluccio gang, who had secretly been working for the Costelli family and placed a bomb in the Belluccio's last brewery. His betrayal would indirectly cause the local zombie outbreak and later destruction of half of Chicago.

## Biography

Not much is known about Frank's life, other than that he had worked as an informant for the Chicago Police Department, for reasons unknown, possibly for money or for leniency regarding conviction for minor crimes he committed.

Before October 1928, he joined the Belluccio crime family prior to the events of Hell bent for Whiskey, eventually becoming the gang's bookkeeper. Though distrusted and unpopular, probably due to his sniveling personality, Frank was tolerated by his colleagues, which he came to use to his advantage, as his being mostly overlooked by the gang, he could plan the next steps of his plan in quiet.

Unbeknownst to them, Frank was working for the Costelli Gang, a rival family, having either purposely infiltrated their midst or betrayed them when he was given the opportunity, be it by his own doing and thinking or with an incentive by the Costellis.

It is presumed that he is the one responsible for the two previous acts of sabotage that struck Belluccio's Whiskey and Beer, or that he was at least involved or knew of them priorly.

On the night of October 8th, 1928, Frank was once again contacted by his employers and met with them in Costelli's Bar, likely to rehearse the plan and/or to be given the bundle of explosives. He then goes to the last Belluccio's Whiskey and Beer brewery and hides the bomb beneath a pipe, setting the detonator to a few minutes, enough to get away from the blast radius by car. Unfortunately for him, he was spotted by two Belluccio members, who followed after him in their own car.

## Hell bent for Whiskey

Frank is seen driving his car at night during rainfall at high speed, causing it to crash, landing off-road below the side of the bridge, near the edge of the Chicago River. As he climbs out of the wreckage, he is blinded by another car's headlights and sees two armed figures exit the vehicle. Upon drawing his gun, one of the men tells him to drop his weapon. The silhouetted individuals turn out to be local gangsters Vinnie and Paulie, who had apparently been chasing after him.

The mobsters begin questioning him about his alleged ties to the Costelli gang. Frankie maintains his innocence, but Paulie tells him to quit the act, as they had seen him leaving the Costellis' bar that night. Frankie frantically claims that it wasn't him who left the speakeasy, but is countered by Vinnie, who demands to instead know what he had been doing at the Belluccio Brewery this late. Frank tells them that he was checking up on the brewery to make sure no one was messing with the machinery, but is shot down in his explanation by Vinnie, who, still skeptical, threatens Frank with dire consequences if they found out that he was lying. Just as Frank affirms to be aware of repercussion, the Belluccio brewery explodes, having been destroyed by a timed stack of dynamite secretly planted by Frankie. All three observe the blast, clearing it beyond a shadow of a doubt that Frank was the traitor. The duo angrily stare at Frankie, who sheepishly shrugs. He is shot dead by the two and left by the river, where he is found the following day.

His death is published in the next day's issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune, stating that he was found floating in the river, riddled with "over 20 bullets", fired from a Thompson machine gun, of the make 1928. They make note of his affiliation with the Belluccio mob, citing it as another death connected to the Booze War between the Costellis and the Belluccios. The paper also reveals his full name, along with his byname, "the Snitch", his position as the Belluccios' bookie, and that he was, fittingly, once an informant for the police.

Frankie after the car crashFrankie pulls out his M1911Frankie shruggingFrankie is shot by Vinnie and PaulieFrankie's bleeding corpse
## Trivia

* His car license plate reads "SMT9522T".
* If the newspaper's account is accurate, Paulie's Lupara missed entirely, having apparently not even grazed him. Vinnie on the other hand was proven to have been the one to actually kill Frank; the bullets Frank was shot with reportedly matched that of a Tommy gun, Vinnie's signature sidearm.
* His surname, Pellegrinaggio, is Italian for "pilgrimage". Ironically, as far as his behavior goes, Frank was far from a moral paradigm and not visibly religious, but one could also paraphrase it as "journey to God", i.e. an impending death, making reference to Frank's untimely demise.
* While the surname Pellegrinaggio doesn't historically exist, Pellegrin and Pellegrina do. Pellegrin is common for the three Venices in northern Italy, in particular Vicenza, Padua and Venice, while Pellegrina, is from the Udine region, also north. Both are derived from the Latin "Peregrinus", having once meant ”foreigner", possibly indicating that some of Frank's early ancestors were not ethnically Italian.
* His full name, Frank Pellegrinaggio, is also a reference to actor Frank Pellegrino, who had small roles in multiple mafia crime films and TV shows, most notably Johnny Dio in *Goodfellas* and Frank Cubitoso in *The Sopranos*.