By Sam Bauman
Joe Conforte is unquestionably one of the originals who made Nevada what it is, for better or worse. His book “Breaks, Brains and Balls,” written with the help of local author David W. Toll, is a truly amazing report of how he turned a seedy brothel the Mustang Ranch just off I-80 east of Reno into a Midas machine, and in the process subverted Nevada law or made new Nevada law.
Conforte now lives in Rio de Janeiro in a penthouse with plenty of female companionship and apparently millions of dollars he made from running whorehouses in Nevada. He’s a wanted man in the United States (income tax problems among others) but no extradition treaty with Brazil allows him to puff his cigars in comfort and for a while to even run his brothels from Rio by telephone.
The title of the book refers to the three qualities Joe says one needs for success of some kind and from his story one can see he had all three. From birth in Sicily in 1926 to fruit markets where he learned the business of selling cheap to Nevada where what he sold did not come cheap, he cut a flashy path and he found his breaks — such as during one of his periods in the U.S. Army he managed to become a citizen though a special deal the Army was offering,
Conforte claims to have a “very good memory,” and if what he recalls in the book is accurate one can believe him. Safely protected from libel laws he names names (including Bill Raggio among many others) in all kinds of fixes, deals, intimidation, money laundering and just plain criminal acts, so varied as to make him a kind of definition of crime.
The hefty book (Gold Hill Publishing Co., Virginia City, 472 pages, no price listed for the very professionally printed work) is subtitled “The Story of Nevada’s Fabulous Mustang Ranch” and how Joe ran it with a constantly changing cast of girls and assistants, including his wife Sally, a madame of many skills.
How much of the book is true (or even accurate) is hard to say; much of what is recounted is told from purely Joe’s word or imagination. Toll, on the other hand, is a professional writer and it shows in his 58-page introduction to life in a Conforte brothel. After that the book is Joe remembering in conversations with Toll, which to a minor degree Toll cleans up for syntax and sense. But the voice here is Clearly Joe’s and he is an expansive talker — again, how much is true is not clear, how much is getting even with old foes such as the IRS, the FBI and other agencies.
There’s a lot here of how things happen in a Nevada brothel, all kinds of financial details but nothing lurid about sex other than in the selection of partners.
And speaking of partners, Joe had a lot, from friendly prostitutes to just ladies of the night. He fathered children, including one born in Brazil (and furnishing him with protection from extradition). Apparently it wasn’t just him money that lured them to him, he seems to have a kind of charm.
Joe does offer insights into what kind of woman goes into the trade and what kind of men patronize them. HIs contempt for politicians is obvious as he buys them and elects them almost at will.
One thing never clear is just how much money he made out of the Mustang and other houses, but it clearly was in the millions of dollars. He handed out money in considerable amounts to pols, lawyers, judges and just about anyone with a hand out.
The editing of Joe’s section is sloppy but it doesn’t interfere with the story of one man’s ride to wealth on the backs of many, many women.
—Sam Bauman
