User blog comment:Martialmaniac/Illumi's necromancy/@comment-25814498-20151020211607/@comment-5780397-20151020214753

The point is: were they murdered and then controlled, or just controlled and crippled for life? This cursed transmitter should ring only when a murder contract has been honored, hence the Ten Dons should be dead. In the translation I found, though,Illumi merely says "Godfathers eliminated", and in Chapter 102, a random mafia guy says "the godfathers" suggested to be cautious around the Troupe (if those godfathers were indeed the controlled Ten Dons, as the minimal shift in time seems to hint), so I don't have definite proof.

It is also possible that the Ten Dons said to be careful after the Shadow Beasts were killed, but even if this was the case, it may impact only their status, not Illumi's ability to control corpses, as one of the "deceased" dons did speak.