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Monday, August 09, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
BROTHEL'S HISTORY
The gates of Nevada's most famous brothel are to be padlocked tonight, ordered shut by a federal judge.
By Ed Vogel
Donrey Capital Bureau
RENO -- Even the prettiest women were looking for customers one evening last week at the Mustang Ranch.
A blond prostitute who calls herself Tori after actress Tori Spelling has not had a client all day. Neither has Britney, a Britney Spears look-alike.
Four men walk up to the front gate. A buzzer sounds, and 10 prostitutes quickly line up side-by-side in the parlor room. They give their names, smile and wait for the men to make their choices.
The men quietly mumble their refusals. They head for the bar and a quick drink.
They are window shoppers. They gulp their beers and almost run for the door without engaging in conversation with the women. They now can tell friends back home they once visited the infamous Mustang Ranch.
Before leaving, the men mention they are in Reno for Hot August Nights and wanted a nostalgic trip to the Mustang before the Justice Department padlocks the gate at 5 tonight. Most other Mustang patrons are not aware of the closing.
Doors to the Mustang Ranch 1 and the adjacent Mustang Ranch 2 are scheduled to be locked tonight. The brothels are in Storey County along the Truckee River off Interstate 80, about 10 miles east of Reno. A third brothel, the Old Bridge Ranch, will remain open a few hundred yards away.
For a time in the 1970s and 1980s, longtime Mustang Ranch owner Joe Conforte was the best known person in Nevada. His Mustang Ranch was the best known noncasino business in the state.
His business became the first legal, fully licensed brothel in the United States in 1971. Two years later, he and his girls made the cover of Rolling Stone. He made videotapes and movies and basked in the attention of the national media.
He epitomized Nevada flamboyance. Conforte dressed in the finest suits and smelled of the most expensive colognes. Arm in arm with his prettiest employees, he would climb into his Rolls-Royce and visit the best Reno restaurants. When he gave his usual lavish tip to waitresses, he sometimes stuffed it in their bras.
Every Christmas, Conforte gave away turkeys to the needy. He offered free days with prostitutes to servicemen returning from America's foreign conflicts. He made sure the media was aware of his largesse.
According to Nevada brothel guides, more than 200,000 men a year had sex with Mustang prostitutes during its heyday. Both the Mustang and the sex workers received four-star ratings, the best of the 30-odd legal brothels in Nevada.
With reporters, Conforte typically was late for appointments. He then made a point of calling the ranch, apologizing and offering a complimentary session with his best-looking employees. He knew media members could never accept for ethical reasons, but it was the stuff that made his legend.
"I've never been ashamed of the business," Conforte said in 1985. "You are never going to eliminate prostitution. If you are going to have it anyway, then isn't it better to have it controlled?"
Barring any last-minute legal machinations, the sensational, sordid slice of Nevada history ends today.
A federal court jury in Julyfound the officers of A.G.E. Corp. and former Mustang madam Shirley Colletti guilty of racketeering and illegally funneling millions of dollars in brothel proceeds to Conforte. He has been a fugitive since 1991, when he fled the country to escape prosecution on tax evasion charges. Colletti, a former Storey County commissioner, will be sentenced Oct. 25.
The Internal Revenue Service seized the ranch from Conforte in 1990 for unpaid taxes. Rather than run a brothel itself, the IRS put the ranch up for auction.
During July's trial, the Justice Department charged that Conforte used associates and front companies to buy back the brothel at the auction and remain its secret owner.
Prosecutors also charged that Colletti and A.G.E., the company listed on records as owning the brothel, conspired to conceal that Conforte remained the owner.
One A.G.E. officer is the nephew of Conforte, who may be hiding in Chile. Authorities there have not cooperated with U.S. officials seeking Conforte's return.
After the convictions, U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben authorized closing the Mustang brothels on Aug. 9.
Jurors also decided A.G.E. must give up land in Sparks formerly owned by Conforte, a trailer park in Lockwood, the Cabin in the Sky restaurant in Gold Hill and $40 million in assets.
Storey County moved in 1998 to shut down the Old Bridge Ranch, which will become the only remaining brothel in the county. Its owner, David Burgess, is a Conforte nephew.
The county temporarily shut down Burgess' brothel in 1998 on the grounds that he was trying to become a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and the ranch was becoming a Hells Angels clubhouse.
A federal court ruled Burgess has a constitutional right to associate with the club.
Kate Hausbeck, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor who does sex industry research, will be on hand for the closing. She wants to conduct interviews with prostitutes.
Hausbeck anticipates the Mustang closure will lead to a re-examination of laws allowing legal prostitution in rural Nevada. State law allows county commissions in rural areas to decide whether to have legal brothels.
"I think what happens at the Mustang will be significant in the ongoing history of brothels in Nevada," she said.
Storey County Commission Chairman Chuck Haynes has initiated an inquiry into a ban on prostitution in his county. Moves have occurred in White Pine County to close the last brothel in Ely.
Joseph Bates, a 54-year-old Ely man, was killed Aug. 1 in a fight with another patron inside the Stardust Ranch. Two other Ely brothels have shut down for economic reasons.
As she waits for customers on the slow evening, a woman who calls herself Courtney says she is not sure what she will do when the ranch is closed.
Tori may try to find a job with a Las Vegas escort service. Britney says she is a real estate agent in Hawaii, and she will return to such endeavors. Servicing men at the Mustang was a sideline job.
The women said 80 percent of their customers were married men. Customers must pay a minimum of $100 for the most basic sex act. The prostitutes start their conversations with prospective customers by demanding at least $300. Some request $600 per hour.
Few takers were around even during Hot August Nights, the weeklong celebration that brings thousands of classic car buffs into the area.
Credit and bank debit cards are accepted. An ATM sits in the parlor.
With the brothel closing, the souvenir shop outside its front gate has been doing great business.
He did not go into the brothel, but a man from Seattle bought six Mustang T-shirts, several bumper stickers and coffee cups from the souvenir shop. His wife stood by and helped him make his choices.
"I can sell them for a profit back home," he said. "They are collectible items."
Because the souvenir shop is part of the ranch, it also is scheduled to fold today. The sales clerk has another job at a beauty parlor.
"At least I won't have to lie to wives when they call anymore," she said.
Purchases of T-shirts and sex acts in the Mustang Ranch are listed on credit card bills as "Nevada Souvenirs."
"Wives would call here and question the $600 purchases their husbands made from Nevada Souvenirs," the sales clerk said. "They wanted to know what they bought for so much money. I didn't want to get their husbands in trouble, but I know how they feel."
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Printable version of this story
James, who did not wish to give his full name, sorts Mustang Ranch T-Shirts last week in the souvenir shop outside the brothel's front gate. With the brothel closing, the shop has been doing great business.
Photo by Cathleen Allison/Review-Journal.
In this 1985 file photo, Joe Conforte walks through the gate of his Mustang Ranch, which became the first legal, fully licensed brothel in the United States in 1971. Conforte has been a fugitive since 1991, wanted on tax evasion charges, and authorities think he is living in South America.
Review-Journal file photo.
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