Joe Conforte’s Legal Tangles

In Nevada, Joe Conforte’s business has been a vicious, 36-year joust with fluctuating state laws, rural leanings and a succession of politicians.

He opened his first whorehouse, the Triangle Ranch, in 1955, when local prostitution laws were spotty and enforced largely by whim. It was an ingenious setup, with brothels in converted farm buildings and later in house trailers, at the converging borders of Washoe, Storey and Lyon counties. When things got too hot in one county, Conforte simply moved his operation 500 yards to an adjacent one.

1959. Tired of being tweaked, Washoe County officials pepper Conforte with vagrancy and pimping arrests. He manages to entrap the district attorney into contributing to the delinquency of a minor and threatens to release that information. Conforte is arrested, convicted of extortion and in 1962 starts serving 3 1/2 years in the Nevada State Penitentiary. While Conforte is in prison, the district attorney publicly burns down the brothel.

* “A guy like me goes to prison and you have it about as good as you can get because I had so much juice,” he recalls. “I was running a casino inside the prison and had a cook, a maid and, for $3 a week, a guy to fan me while I played bridge.” Conforte is released , returns to Storey County and in 1967 opens Mustang Ranch.

1975. Although prostitution is now legal in Storey County and other Nevada counties, a second building at Mustang Ranch is gutted by fire. A suspected arsonist is arrested, but his alibi is airtight and the blaze remains a mystery.

* Conforte collects a $350,000 insurance settlement and rebuilds his substandard brothel better than before.

1976. A county grand jury report on Conforte’s local influence details his entertaining of local officials, free passes to the brothel, campaign contributions and blind eyes everywhere.

* But no grand jury indictments are returned.

1976. Heavyweight boxer Oscar Bonavena of Argentina is shot and killed at the gate of Mustang Ranch. An investigation shows that Bonavena was having an affair with Conforte’s third wife and had bragged about taking over Mustang Ranch. It is hinted that Conforte had taken out a contract on Bonavena through Jimmy (The Weasel) Fratiano, an acquaintance and Mafia hit man.

* The brothel owner is not charged and Ross Brymer, Conforte’s chauffeur and bodyguard, serves 18 months for manslaughter.

1977. Joe and Sally Conforte--a husband-and-wife team of convenience from the earlier years when Joe was short one madam and Sally needed a job--are charged with evading taxes. He is sentenced to 20 years and appeals the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Years later, the appeal is rejected.

* Conforte forfeits $40,000 in bail on the tax convictions, $200,000 on an unrelated bribery charge, and flees to Rio de Janeiro and a penthouse apartment overlooking the beach and girls from Ipanema.

1982. A grand jury in Storey County, where Mustang Ranch is located, decides that the brothel’s absentee landlord holds “unusual influence and power” over county officials. Among others, the jury names Dist. Atty. Virgil Bucchianeri and Sheriff Bob Del Carlo, who both handled the Bonavena investigation.

* Again no indictments are returned; Bucchianeri and Del Carlo are reelected and currently hold office.

1983. Conforte returns from exile in Brazil to serve time for income tax evasion and bribery. It seems justice is finally being served. However, in his most successful flourish of cunning to date, Conforte works a deal with federal prosecutors: In exchange for a light sentence, he will testify that he gave $85,000 in bribes to federal Judge Harry Claiborne.

* The bribery charge is dropped, but Claiborne is jailed on other charges and impeached. Conforte’s original 20-year sentence is reduced to 18 months.

1985. Tom Wright, a new district attorney in the county seat of Virginia City, vows to clean up Storey County’s grimy image by getting rid of Conforte. He says he won’t even talk to the man unless the conversation is recorded and monitored by FBI agents.

* Wright ‘ s term barely lasts two years and he is now in private practice in Reno. He leaves office, he says, to preserve his political reputation . “I might want to run for attorney general one day,” Wright explains in a recent interview. “I was advised that if I stayed in Storey County any longer , I might be considered one of Conforte’s good ol’ boys.”