More truth than fiction to this post!
I hear the girls can make a couple million dollars within a few years and retire permanently...hmmm... wish I wasn't so damned old...
The hypocrisy of modern government toward prostitution, however, has never been more evident than at Mustang Ranch, once the best-known brothel in the United States. An oasis of mobilehomes amid 440 acres of sand and sagebrush 10 miles east of Reno, the ranch offered security, cleanliness, and mirrors on the ceiling. The women who worked there were required to use condoms and get weekly medical checkups.
Although Nevada law permits bordellos in various counties, it insists that their operators – bizarrely enough – be of good moral character. However, what in other people would be considered an expression of good character – such as civic-mindedness – can in the case of a brothel owner be criticized as grasping for legitimacy.
In the 1970s, Mustang Ranch owner Joe Conforte found himself in this situation. Although he could easily have been considered a scoundrel merely because of his financial dealings, Conforte came under attack primarily because he was considered too involved in civic affairs for a brothel owner. Leading the attack was the local press, and in 1977, Warren Lerude, Foster Church, and Norman Cardoza of The Reno Evening News and Nevada State Journal shared a Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing for denouncing Conforte’s influence in the Reno area.
Reading about all this in California, I was surprised by Conforte’s rise to national prominence, especially when he was written up – complete with an Annie Leibovitz photo – in Rolling Stone magazine. Equally surprising was his subsequent fall. In 1990, a federal court took control of Mustang Ranch after Conforte missed a $75,000 monthly tax bill. When word of the takeover reached the bordello, "prostitutes panicked and fled, customers were thrown out, and the doors were slammed," The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.
Given government’s usual repression of prostitution, one might have expected officials to be pleased that the brothel had closed. Not so. When a federal bankruptcy judge turned Mustang Ranch over to US Bankruptcy trustee Jeri Coppa, she considered it her top priority to immediately get the bordello back in business. As her office saw it, the closure could not have come at a worse time. The Reno Air Races were to be held that Saturday, and normally this would be he busiest weekend of the year at Mustang Ranch. The whorehouse could not afford to lose so many potential customers if it was to pay off the IRS and its secured creditors.
"I’m trying to get the girls back, straighten out the business licenses, insurance, and work permits, blood tests – and get the place back open," Ms. Coppa, the federal bankruptcy trustee, told Chronicle reporter Kevin Leary three days before the Air Races. "It’s a new experience for me. I’ve never run a whorehouse before. But about 20 girls have signed up so far, and the bar manager and floor maids are anxious to get back to work."
In any case, the federal government with unusual alacrity managed to reopen Mustang Ranch just in time for the Air Races. Later the ranch was sold at auction, where it was purchased by an associate of Conforte.
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