The Women of the Bunny Ranch Lodged Horrifying Accusations Against the Brothel's Late Owner

Not only is the Bunny Ranch still open, but it has a website with options such as "sex menu." When you click on that, you'll see exactly what you might expect given the description. The Bunny Ranch is a brothel in Nevada, but it's not in Sin City proper. Sex work is actually illegal within the Las Vegas city limits, but it's OK in certain Nevada counties.

The full name of this establishment is Dennis Hof’s World Famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch. It's easy to see why it's more commonly known as the Bunny Ranch. This property has a long and rich history of employing ladies of the night. Hof purchased the building in 1992, gave it a remodel, and reopened with a sassy new name. A lot has happened in those walls, including a host of allegations lodged against Hof, who died in 2018. What happened? Here's what we know.

A disturbing docuseries is bringing allegations against Hof to light, and they involve numerous women. The six-part series titled Secrets of the Bunny Ranch involves interviews with more than two dozen women. These conversations include accusations of rape, assault, sex trafficking, corruption, underage grooming of young girls, and drug use in the brothels Hof owned. You read that correctly, he ran more than one.

In a meta move, the docuseries first revisits the HBO reality show Cathouse, which documented the lives of the Bunny Ranch sex workers. It ran off and on between 2002 and 2014. Dolly Hart was not in Cathouse, but recalled watching the show when she was 11 or 12 years old. That's where she went when she decided to turn to sex work. Hart was initially drawn to the camaraderie between the girls, but quickly learned there was a steep price to pay when it came to Hof.

Hart's story was not unusual. There were a lot of girls who found themselves at the Bunny Ranch after watching Cathouse. Shelly Dushell was a divorcee living in Oklahoma when a tornado destroyed her home. She mailed Hof a photo, and he quickly invited her to the Ranch. When she arrived, he demanded unprotected sex. There are several stories like this featured in the documentary.

On Oct. 16, 2018, Hof passed away at the age of 72, just as he was attempting to nab the GOP nomination for a Nevada legislative seat, per the Reno Gazette Journal. Nye County Commissioner John Koenig confirmed Hof's death, saying that he "went to sleep last night and didn't wake up." He was discovered by longtime friend and porn star Ron Jeremy, who was later indicted on 30 sexual-assault counts. Jeremy was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial due to an incurable neurocognitive decline.

Hof's cause of death was later determined to be a heart attack due to atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Per the Clark County coroner’s office report, he also had the marijuana chemical compound THC and sildenafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction, in his system.

Some of the women in the documentary have since returned to the lives they were leading before they ended up at the Bunny Ranch. The point of the series was to give them a voice when they had none. They deserve to be heard.