Flamboyant brothel owner who planned to run as Nevada state governor in 2022

Most brothel owners keep a low profile, but not Dennis Hof. Banned by Nevada state law from advertising his establishments, he courted media attention with publicity stunts instead.

Hof, who has died of undisclosed causes at the age of 72, called himself ‘‘the world’s greatest pimp’’ and invited HBO into his Moonlite Bunny Ranch to make Cathouse ,a television show about life in a brothel, which ran from 2005 to 2014. He wrote a raunchy bestseller entitled The Art of the Pimp, appeared regularly on chat shows, and spoke in defence of legal prostitution at the Oxford Union and the

Sorbonne.

Perhaps unsurprisingly,

Hof’s hero was

Donald Trump.

Like the United

States president, he was boastful, shameless and outrageous. He, too, was accused of sexual impropriety with women, but dismissed those allegations as fake news. Like Trump, he regarded himself as a wealthy outsider who despised the establishment, and having achieved celebrity through a reality television show he sought to parlay that celebrity into political advancement.

Earlier this year, Hof defeated the incumbent in the Republican primary for the 36th district of the Nevada State Assembly, and would undoubtedly have gone on to win next month’s general election, as the district is staunchly Republican. He was campaigning on an anti-tax platform, with the slogan ‘‘Make Nevada Nevada Again’’, and had Roger Stone, Trump’s strategist, advising him.

Nevada’s Republican leaders were appalled. They threatened to ostracise him if he were elected (although several were said to have availed themselves of his brothels). However, it never came to that. The overweight, cigar-smoking diabetic was found dead in his bed at one of his brothels on the morning of October 16, having apparently enjoyed a romp too many after the protracted celebrations for his 72nd birthday.

Dennis Hof was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1946, the son of a German father and Italian mother who immigrated to America through Ellis Island. His father served in the US military during World War II and subsequently became a postman.

Hof liked to tell how, as a boy, he yearned to be rich when he delivered papers to houses with garages bigger than his whole home. He began working at a petrol station at 15 because he wanted a car. At 17 he married his girlfriend, Shirley, after she became pregnant, and they had a second daughter four years later. After leaving school he borrowed $1000 from his father, leased a vacant petrol station and, within six years, owned five.

During the oil shortages of the early 1970s Hof was approached by the owner of a local massage parlour, and he agreed to supply fuel for her girls in return for their services. That,

Dennis Hof on his support for President Donald Trump

he said, was his sexual awakening. ‘‘I soon realised I had a big problem: I loved sex and I couldn’t get enough of it.’’

Hof divorced Shirley, married another Shirley and became a ‘‘suburban dad’’ until he took a road trip to Nevada. He fell in love with the Silver State and decided to move there in 1976, leaving his second wife behind.

In Nevada he bought more petrol stations, dabbled in property and time-shares, and bought his first brothel, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, for $1 million in the early 1990s. Other purchases followed – the Love Ranch North, the Love Ranch Vegas and the Alien Cathouse – and he became president of the Nevada Brothel Owners’ Association.

A born showman, Hof invited HBO into the Moonlite brothel, became a regular on television shows, and boasted about how he helped to protect and educate the girls who worked for him.

He allowed them to set their own prices, told them not to ‘‘party’’ with men they did not like, and encouraged them to develop online relationships with customers so that they returned. He denounced sex trafficking. ‘‘Yeah, we’re selling sex,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re doing it in a safe way that protects the public and the girls.

‘‘We don’t allow drugs. We check for STDs [sexually transmitted diseases]. We’re taxpaying citizens . . . It’s a lot better than having these pimps picking up girls and dropping them on street corners. It’s done properly.’’

During the Iraq War Hof offered returning US soldiers free sex with his prostitutes. ‘‘We want to feel patriotic,’’ he said by way of explanation.

He might have thought this demonstrated a sense of humour, but Hof had a dark side. He was accused of sexual assault at least four times. Curiously, he gave some of his accusers space to air their grievances in his book. They accused the man they called ‘‘Daddy’’ of being ‘‘soulless’’ and ‘‘sadistic’’.

Like Trump, Hof rejected such charges as false news, and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign inspired him to enter politics. ‘‘He’s the Christopher Columbus of politics,’’ he said of Trump. ‘‘All I’m doing is following him to the new world.’’

That year he ran as a Libertarian against James Oscarson, the 36th District’s Republican incumbent who had supported a commerce tax on Nevada businesses. He lost. This year he ran against Oscarson in the Republican primary and won on a platform of tax cuts, gun rights and being too wealthy to be corruptible. His victory was regarded as a significant upset, and he was dubbed the ‘‘Trump of Pahrump’’, after the district’s main town.

He also talked about running for state governor in 2022, but he reckoned without his own mortality. He celebrated his 72nd birthday at an extended party at his Moonlite brothel with guests including the former ‘‘Hollywood Madam’’ Heidi Fleiss, the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, and Joe Arpaio, America’s self-styled ‘‘toughest sheriff’’. His friend, Ron Jeremy, a pornographic film star, found him naked and dead in his bed the next morning.

‘He’s the Christopher Columbus of politics. All I’m doing is following him to the new world.’’