Johnny Fratto Dies After Battling Lung Cancer

Johnny Fratto, RIP....

Johnny Fratto died following a bout with lung cancer.

Fratto passed away this morning peacefully with his family members by his side, including his wife, Ivanka.

Fratto, 61, was the son of Outfit mobster Louis Fratto, who reportedly was active in Illinois and Iowa from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Johnny Fratto made regular guest appearances on the Howard Stern Show and ran several businesses, including Beverly Hills Choppers. He wrote a book about the Mafia called Would You Read This Book If I Threatened to Kill You?

It is unavailable, according to Amazon.com, however.

It's not known how long he'd been battling cancer.

Fratto's brother Frank was killed along with boxer Rocky Marciano in a 1969 plane crash.

Asked about his alleged mob connections, Fratto once said:

It’s part of my heritage and part of my pedigree. It’s something that existed before I existed. I been around all of that and read about it before the time I was a little kid. I know guys that are “real guys”, I know guys that pretend to be real guys… it’s all the same: there’s good people and there’s bad people. I don’t believe it exists the way people believe it exists anymore. Maybe 25 years ago it was like that, but I think it’s still pretty much over… I am the Paris Hilton of the mafia, I haven’t done anything, yet somehow I seem to be the guy that’s always in the light.

We reported on Fratto when he was filmed accompanying Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino at LAX, where Merlino had just landed. Fratto said he was Joey's friend and driver.