Mustang Ranch 2 Destroyed
.jpg "Legal sex worker Air Force Amy stands outside the old Mustang 2 building as it goes up in flames during a training burn Sunday, March 25, 2007. Amy used to work in the building before it closed in 1999. She now works at the Bunny Ranch near Carson City.")
Legal sex worker Air Force Amy stands outside the
old Mustang 2 building as it goes up in flames during a training burn
Sunday, March 25, 2007. Amy used to work in the building before it
closed in 1999. She now works at the Bunny Ranch near Carson City.Air Force Amy, considered one of the top earners in Nevada's legalized brothel business, had no feelings of sentimentality while watching the old Mustang Ranch II burn to the ground Sunday.
Storey County firefighters torched the old brothel, in business from 1983 to 1999, as part for fire training exercises. The building, owned by Moonlite Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof, had become a nuisance because of its lack of upkeep, Storey County officials said.
Amy, a Mustang Ranch II employee from 1994 to 1997, said there were was little freedom but plenty of fear working at the 48-room brothel.
"If you want to get down to brass tacks, this was white slavery, but it was better than being on the streets," said Amy, a
17-year veteran of Nevada's legal brothel industry.
The brothel, which is east of Sparks, had been owned by Joe Conforte, who fled to Brazil in 1991 to avoid prosecution on tax evasion charges.
Amy said she never met Conforte but worked for one of his business associates, Mustang madam Shirley Colletti. In 2002, Colletti was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for her role in a racketeering and money-laundering operation involving the Mustang Ranch.
"I don't have any regrets about the people I worked for," said Amy, who now works for Hof at the Bunny Ranch. "They were as nice as they could be, but they had to keep a strong arm on the girls because there was a different type of working girl back then."
"They didn't have as many women to choose from as they do now," Amy said. "The girls back then were destitute, deranged. Some were drug addicts, and some were alcoholics, and some were street people and the homeless.
"And, we came here to work. We had to toe the line and follow the rules. But, at least we had a roof over our heads instead of walking the streets.
"You were forced to do things that you didn't want to do or you were fired," Amy said. "If you asked questions, you were fired. I just remember being scared all the time, scared that I would get in trouble for something."
Things have changed for Amy. No longer are the girls held in lockdown for a week to three weeks. She has become a leading cast member of "Cathouse," the cable television HBO series which chronicles life at the Bunny Ranch.
Prices for her services have gone up since her days at the Mustang Ranch II. And, unlike the old days, she can refuse service to any customer she wants.
"It's out with the old and in with the new," Amy said. "The days of the $20 roll in the hay in a trailer are gone."
As a wind fanned the flames, Hof said the burning marked an end of an era. The blaze left no buildings at the former site of the Mustang Ranch, padlocked by the government in 1999 after years of tax problems.
"This is a historic moment," Hof said, watching a black smoke plume rise from the modular building. "The Mustang Ranch represents the best and the worst things about prostitution in Nevada."
"The Mustang Ranch is associated with graft, corruption, murder and payoffs. That's what (former owner) Joe Conforte and Storey County are known for. This may be the end of that era," he said.
The county has rid itself of a major nuisance and hazard while providing valuable training to firefighters, county Fire Marshal Eric Guevin said.
"For the young firefighters, I don't think they know the history of the Mustang Ranch. For senior staff, it's a piece of history," Guevin said. "But, people would break into it, and it was unmaintained, and it had met its time."
The Bureau of Land Management plans to return the Mustang Ranch land to a natural state and use it for public access to the Truckee River. The government seized the Mustang Ranch in 1999 after guilty verdicts against its parent companies and manager in a federal fraud and racketeering trial.
Conforte took over the Mustang Ranch in 1967, when prostitution was illegal. In 1971, it became the state's first legal brothel and led to a movement that legalized prostitution in
12 of Nevada's 17 counties.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| Legalized prostitution | Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:12 am |
| Are you sure of those dates? There was definitely legalized prostituion in Elko County long before 1971!!!! | |
