Sally was born in Palos,
Alabama in January 1917, and had eleven siblings.
First marriage and first brothels Sally married Barney Perlman in 1942 in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She divorced him in
Reno, Nevada in 1951, after he ran off with a showgirl from the
Riverside Hotel. Sally resumed use of her maiden name, Burgess. After the end of her relationship with Perlman, she opened the Sally J Ranch brothel in
Fallon, Nevada, east of Reno near the
Naval Air Station Fallon but it was closed by the sheriff. By 1955, Sally had operated four brothels in Fallon, each one closed by the sheriff.
Second marriage and further prostitution-related activities She met her second husband,
Joseph Conforte, in 1955; they were married in August 1961. According to a July 26, 1976 article in
New York Magazine: "That first year (1955), on Thanksgiving Eve, Joe met Sally. He had opened a house near the town of
Wadsworth, 30 miles east of Reno, and he'd driven in to pick up a girl to work the holiday. There in the girl's apartment was Sally Burgess--exactly the madam he'd been looking for." In 1958, Joe and Sally were arrested for running a prostitution call center across from a church in downtown Reno. According to the
Reno Evening Gazette: "Reno Police Chief T.R. Berrum called it 'the most brazen and flagrant' prostitution operation he has seen." Joe and Sally opened several brothels together, creating a prostitution empire that stretched across Nevada and to
South Lake Tahoe. According to Gabriel Vogliotti, Conforte and her husband Joe had a strained relationship. At times, Joe was supportive and capable and at other times he had a "crushing ego". Sally was "unhappy, cheated, [and] at home" in the later part of their relationship, and she felt "so lonely".
Joseph Conforte entered prison on January 10, 1962. Sally had begun to operate out of Stateline in
Douglas County, Nevada next to South Lake Tahoe. Douglas County had no ordinance to prohibit prostitution, and Sally's business flourished. Quoting Mrs. John McMillan, manager of a 185-unit apartment house at Stateline, to the Douglas County Commission, February 1966: "It's one of the biggest businesses I've ever seen in my life." Sally was arrested for operating a South Lake Tahoe beauty shop illegally in an apartment building, and her escort business closed. Joseph Conforte returned to Northern Nevada in December 1965. With her husband's support and several thugs they hired, Sally waged a mini war on her competitors. From the
Nevada State Journal, February 1, 1966, page 1: "A report of gunfire in the Happy Valley area... Washoe Sheriffs arrived just in time... Pursuit of the car was taken up and continued well into the Reno area... In the automobile, officers said, was Sally Conforte, former operator of a house of prostitution in the Happy Valley area. With her were three men, described by sheriff's officers as 'well-known hoods.' Also in the car, officers said, was an 'arsenal', a .38 caliber pistol, a .30 caliber carbine, a shotgun, and a plentiful amount of ammunition." Additional news reports named George Bart Piscitelle, aka George Perry, as one of the hoods in the car with Sally. Piscitelle was an enforcer for Los Angeles mobster
Mickey Cohen, who later died in a gun battle in Los Angeles. 1967, the Confortes took control of the Mustang Bridge Ranch brothel, located a mere ten minute drive from downtown Reno. Joe put the cathouse business in Sally's name so he could not be further accused of being a pimp and to keep it out of IRS reach, having been convicted of tax evasion before.
First legal brothel owner February 26, 1971, Nevada's Governor
Mike O'Callaghan signed anti-vice bill SB214, also known as the county option brothel bill, into law, giving counties the ability to license and regulate brothels while outlawing Clark County-Las Vegas to keep the Confortes out. Mustang Bridge Ranch, with Sally Conforte as licensee, was first in the nation to be licensed under the new state law. On May 15, 1976, Joe and Sally Conforte's
Mustang Ranch brothel held its grand opening. A week after the Mustang Ranch officially opened,
Oscar Bonavena was shot and killed at the front gate by Joe Conforte's enforcer, Willard Ross Brymer. After the death of Oscar Bonavena, Farrell wrote that (1976): "[Sally] was a great white shark of suffering... scorned and robbed, a witness to things she hardly dared consider. She blamed herself, she blamed her husband, she felt slammed back into the grave of eleven years. And in her moments of breakdown, when she trembled even to the touch, she went through an agony that overwhelmed. It was a dangerous agony, one that didn't care what happened anymore." ==Financial Issues==