LAS VEGAS -- He's been living in exile in Brazil for years, but notorious brothel baron Joe Conforte has finally finished his autobiography. The book has been in the works for 25 years.
"I think of him as being on the same scale as Buffalo Bill or Howard Hughes. You know, these crazy characters that come out of the west and capture the imagination," said Joe Conforte's biographer David Toll.
Biographers are supposed to be enamored of their subjects, but newspaperman David Toll did not let his fascination with Conforte result in a sanitized version of Conforte's outrageous life. The new book is written in the first person, and the words are unmistakably Conforte's own. Toll thinks of it as an adventure story and history text.
"People know very little about him. People know very little about this aspect of Nevada history. This really is a history book, the kind of history they don't teach you in schools," said Toll.
Generations of Nevada politicians are probably thankful for that because Joe Conforte is a guy who could name names, and does. He founded the Mustang Ranch, the nation's first and most-profitable legal bordello. In order to protect his business, Conforte spread a lot of money around, both in his base in Storey County and all over the state, helping to elect politicians who might not try to shut him down.
"His authority was almost absolute. He ran government there, informally of course, and he was pretty good at it. People look back with nostalgia now on how things were when Joe was in Storey County," said Toll.
Toll began working with Conforte on the book in 1985 just after Conforte cut a deal to get released from prison in exchange for his testimony against federal judge Harry Claiborne. The project went off the rails when Conforte decided to leave the country, anticipating that he might be indicted. The book explores the twisted trail Conforte followed through Latin America, including a brief stay in Cuba as a guest of Fidel Castro.
"I had three different passports. I chose the best one," said Conforte.
Although the U.S. considered Conforte to be a fugitive for a period, he was a legal resident of Brazil when the I-Team visited him two years ago, living in a luxury penthouse with a teenage "assistant."
At the time, a movie was in production about a part of Conforte's life. Joe Pesci played the Conforte role, and Conforte expected it to be a hit. But Love Ranch was a bomb. Still, when our reports about Conforte aired, Toll got the idea that he too could find Conforte and finish the book.
"I had to go to Rio to get the whole story and I'm really glad that it did take this long because if I had finished it earlier, I would not have had the whole story and the last chapters are as interesting as the early ones," he said.
Toll not only updates Conforte's days of leisure in Brazil, but also fills in a lot of blanks about politicians who accepted the brothel owner's generosity, and not only in money. Conforte figures he has provided more pleasure to men than any person in history, though, as Toll learned, despises the term pimp.
"Pimp is one of the worst words. I hate pimp because a pimp, I've got to explain this to you, a pimp is someone forcing the girls to give him money," said Conforte.
Conforte, now in his 80's, offered the government $500,000 to allow him to visit the U.S. without being arrested, has now given up any hope of getting approval.
Among the tidbits in Conforte's new book are details about his cell mates while in federal prison, including famous crime figures Alvin Karpis and Frankie Carbo.
