|
|
| December 15, 2002
Closing the cathouse
doors
|
Los Angeles Times
News Service |
STOREY COUNTY -- They came for one last
transaction at the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel, and unlike
previous customers, they were allowed to take their purchases
home.
Barstools and tables. Souvenir T-shirts. Drawings
of nudes. Bottles of wine bearing a Mustang Ranch label. Even
computers and credit card machines because, after everything
else, this was once a thriving business.
The federal
government on Saturday auctioned off the remains of Nevada's
oldest bordello, seized after its owner ran up a $13-million
tax debt, leaving the landmark pink stucco building and its
adjoining annex empty except for the ghosts of pleasures -- or
sins -- past.
"Let's start the bidding on these keys,"
said auctioneer Sean Fraley as government accountants stood
by, tallying up the proceeds. "You can buy the keys to this
joint." They went for $170.
The days of negotiating
prices downward at the brothel were long gone as Fraley pushed
the bidding upward before banging his gavel and closing one
deal after another.
On an impulse, retired commercial
airlines pilot George Howell bought the parlors' three-foot
disco ball for $350. He intends to hang it in his private
airplane hangar in Rolla, Mo. "I've flown out of Reno for
years and have always heard about the Mustang Ranch. I think
the disco ball would be fun to hang above my airplane." Larry
Payne, a local electrician, paid $200 for 10 Mustang Ranch
"pleasure menus."
"They'll make great Christmas gifts.
Maybe we'll put one above the bed," said his wife Ronna. "He
can always wish."
Already taken to a trash bin were the
bed mattresses, which officials deemed would be in poor taste
-- and possible violation of health codes -- to sell to the
public, no matter what stories they could
tell.
Proceeds from the auction will go to the Treasury
Department's Asset Forfeiture Fund to pay for law enforcement
equipment. The land itself will be turned over to the Bureau
of Land Management, which is debating several uses for
it.
In its heyday, the Mustang Ranch, about 15 miles
east of Reno, kept as many as 100 women busy in a single
evening as one of nearly 30 houses of legal prostitution in
rural Nevada.
One-time cab driver Joseph Conforte
launched his first brothel in 1955, only to have it burned to
the ground by local authorities after it was deemed a public
nuisance.
He purchased the Mustang Ranch in 1967 and
found legitimacy when Storey County legalized brothels four
years later. State law allows rural counties to regulate
brothels -- a legacy of Nevada's mining and railroad
construction camps. Nevada's other 12 rural counties soon
followed suit, coveting them as a source of much-needed
business-license revenue.
But throughout his ownership,
the cigar-chomping Conforte faced income tax evasion,
racketeering, bankruptcy fraud and other charges -- even as he
donated 1,000 turkeys to the poor every year and offered free
brothel passes to returning Desert Storm soldiers. The federal
government seized the ranch in 1990 after he failed to pay a
$13-million tax debt and fled to Brazil, which has no
extradition pact with the United States.
The IRS
auctioned off the Mustang Ranch in 1990 -- and Conforte
purchased it again, through a network of bogus companies and
Swiss bank accounts fattened by profits his associates had
skimmed from the Mustang's books.
Three years ago, the
government again seized the property and its assets, and
closed the business for good, leading to Saturday's
auction.
Among the bidders were the owners of two
nearby brothels.
Dennis Hof, owner of Moonlite Bunny
Ranch, spent about $23,000 on everything from memorabilia for
his brothel museum to nine burgundy sofas and two ATM
machines. "I'm preserving American history," he
said.
Among Lance Gillman's purchases were 300 bottles
of premium liquor for $1,500 and 32 plastic chairs for $35 to
equip his new Wild Horse brothel. "What better to place to
shop if you're setting up your own brothel," he
said.
The fate of the two brothel buildings, an old
stone ranch house and the 340-acre site itself remains
unresolved.
The land is expected to be transferred by
the Treasury Department to the Bureau of Land Management,
which is now debating what to do with it.
| |
 |
|
|
