The Costellis

> «Frankie musta been working for the Costelli Gang all along...» -Belluccio incriminating his rivals
>
>

**The Costellis**, also known as the **Costelli Gang,** are an organized crime syndicate and the Belluccios' sworn rivals in the short film, Hell bent for Whiskey, serving as indirect secondary antagonists. One of many bootlegging criminal gangs in Chicago, a botched brewing operation would soon turn their gang war with the Belluccios into an insignificance compared to what was about to unfold.

## Hell bent for Whiskey

The Costellis are the competitor family of the Belluccios in their not-so-friendly match over power in Chicago. The owners of at least one brewery, one bar and one pizza restaurant, all with their name plastered on, they are first mentioned by Paulie when he accuses a suspected mole named Frank of having been spotted at their bar that night, which is later proven correct after the last Belluccio brewery on the other side of town is blown up by a hidden explosive planted by Frankie.

The next day, Mr. Belluccio vows to get even with them by stealing their booze from their brewery's warehouse. When Vinnie and Paulie arrive there though, they find no guards present. Instead of wondering as to their absence or searching the building for clues, the two mobsters simply decide to take advantage of the situation and take around half a dozen of whiskey barrels for starters.

Had they taken a look upstairs, they would have found a small back room with a broken window, with the Costellis inside, all dead. The interior is riddled with bullet holes and blood stains, the coat hanger has been knocked over to a wardrobe filled with holes, with only a bottle of liquor, a grey fedora and an almost empty glass standing on the table undisturbed. A calendar for October of the year 1928 has 4 separate days marked with crosses.

At least three men are seen strewn across the floor or slumped against the walls, along with a knocked down chair and many shards of glass. The grey-haired corpse lying face-down in front of the table to the ground has a Tommy gun by his legs, while the lifeless body of a mobster in a bright beige trench coat can be seen behind the table, having died on his back, soaked in blood. Another corpse with balding black hair wearing a blue coat was apparently shot multiple in a horizontal burst before slumping down the wall he was standing in front of. The discolored grey tone of his skin is similar to that of the hand of the gangster with the Tommy gun, who seems to have simply keeled over dead, as no visible wounds can be seen in him. Both are in stark contrast to the third man, who's skin is still fair, who also appears to have been shot, though only once successfully by similar burst fire. The faint sound of screaming and gunfire is heard as the camera zooms onto the bottle, pinpointing the real culprit.

Their booze was apparently adulterated with an unknown substance, be it through poor distilling, a new recipe or accidental contamination, that turns the consumer into a living corpse, instantly rotting in a matter of seconds to minutes, also causing the victim to have an insatiable craving for more booze. Infected also attack human beings, though they appear to have no interest in devouring them, but instead to just kill them, shown in the case of Luigi, who immediately goes for Paulie and starts strangling him. Hair loss, loose limbs and eyeballs falling out of their socket are common on all specimen, but they maintain enough bodily function to be able to break down glass windows and wooden doors, while also moving in a shuffling motion, though recently turned seem to be capable of running, holding and punching the same as when alive, possibly even gaining strength for the time being.

When the bar they brought the whiskey to was subject to said effects of the liquor, Vinnie and Paulie retreated and headed to their boss for advice, who ordered to have the bar and the Costelli brewery destroyed via explosives. They fail when they are attacked by the bar infected, who have been attracted to the brewery for its booze. They promptly begin greedily chugging it down, with many attempting to drink out of the biggest storage vat present, which ends up toppling over from their weight, flooding the sewers Vinnie and Paulie escaped the zombies from. The two quickly exit through a manhole, just before the brewery and most of Chicago is blown up by a lit cigar, carelessly dropped by none other than Don Belluccio.

The brewery is annihilated, presumably along with most, if not all remaining Costelli members.

## Known members

* Costelli (The Don, Boss)
* Frank "The Snitch" Pellegrinaggio (Soldier)
* At least three unnamed members

## Trivia

* The Costelli name is typically only found in northwestern Italy, in a concentrated part of Lombardy, in a small area that includes Varese, Milan and Bergamo.