News July 13, Center St. Wilson was the manager of the Salt Wells Villa, a brothel located about 15 miles east of here on Highway At that time, Salt Wells was one of two legal houses of prostitution in Churchill County. Flint was an ordained Pentecostal minister, the married father of four, the son of two preachers, the owner of a downtown Reno wedding chapel, the paid executive director of the Nevada Brothel Association and its lobbyist at the Nevada Legislature.
Flint was a powerhouse at the Legislature. Many of the brothels that are located in rural counties such as Churchill provide jobs and pay taxes that help sustain the local economies.
There were about 40 legal brothels in Nevada in when Flint and the others came to see me. The brothels, since , were permitted to operate by county option. They were not allowed in Washoe and Clark counties and Carson City. I told Wilson, the owners of the Lazy B and Flint that I had nothing against legalized prostitution and would keep an open mind. They were all satisfied. The Lazy B, the smaller of the two brothels here, has long been closed. Its tattered buildings may be seen east of Fallon on the north side of Highway As for the Salt Wells Villa, it was closed in after the Nevada State Health Department shut it down because of the lack of potable drinking water on the premises and other code violations.
Its operating license also was revoked that year when it was learned its new owner had died and the business was abandoned. Its remains may still be seen today. The following year, Ensign, a married man with three children, was forced to resign his Senate seat in mid-term after it was revealed he kept a mistress who was the wife of his senior Washington aide.
That man, Nye County Sheriff Tom Hogan, also a married man and the father of eight children, was shot to death by two gamblers at the Jewell House brothel in Manhattan. Wearing only a nightshirt when he was killed, it was discovered that Hogan, too, kept a secret mistress. Her name was May Biggs, she was the Jewell House madam, and she and Sheriff Logan had been spending the night in bed at her brothel before the sheriff was summoned to the parlor to toss out the rowdy gamblers who subsequently killed him.
