Raggio’s legend caught fire with his battle against pimp

March 23, 1960: Bill Raggio burned down Joe Conforte's whorehouse.

He didn't actually light the fire, and in later years in a biography by Michael Archer, he described his role as "spectator."

That's not how Northern Nevada newspapers characterized it at the time when the then-Washoe County district attorney gained national notoriety for torching the Triangle Ranch brothel, even if firefighters did the actual torching.

The Triangle Ranch covered pieces of Storey, Washoe and Lyon counties, so the DA in Storey County, with Raggio's backing, obtained a judge's approval to burn the joint, but it was Raggio who was dubbed Nevada's brothel-burning DA.

The mutual loathing between Raggio and Conforte had caused Conforte to try to set up Raggio with a 17-year-old prostitute in November 1959, sparking the brothel burning four months later.

The flurry of remembrances following Raggio's death Thursday focused heavily on his Senate years. His statesmanship. His legendary support of higher education. His making sure that Northern Nevada received more than its fair share of state tax dollars. His ability to bring legislators to an agreement, no matter how uneasy.

But Raggio's 12 years as Washoe County DA were his more colorful years, launching an enmity with Conforte that lasted until Raggio's death at 85.

Conforte, now living the high life in Brazil to avoid federal tax charges, even joined the politicians in offering up statements.

"This man was very intelligent, and he was a good politician," Conforte told the Reno Gazette Journal in a statement. "In fact, with all his talents, I think he could have been president of the United States if only he hadn't (expletive deleted) with Joe Conforte."

See why Raggio couldn't stand the guy?

Raggio, proud of his own Italian heritage, despised the Sicilian pimp who moved to Northern Nevada to set up shop in 1955.

Elected DA in 1958, Raggio was disgusted by Conforte, who flaunted his hookers in public and tossed money around like candy, bribing law enforcement officials to leave him alone, tipping with $100 bills.

At their first meeting in June 1959, Raggio told Conforte he was banned from Washoe County because he was a vagrant, a pimp living off the earnings of prostitutes.

Archer, who wrote "A Man of His Word," quoted Raggio saying, "I subsequently put out an order that he be arrested when he showed up, though that was often complicated because many members of the law enforcement community considered him a friend and refused."

To counterattack, Conforte decided to set up Raggio and arranged for an underage prostitute to approach Raggio on Nov. 13, 1959, purportedly to handle her divorce. (At that time in Washoe County, a DA could also handle private clients.)

The next day, she asked Raggio to meet her at the Riverside Hotel. She told him she was 22, and they had drinks at the bar; then she said she felt ill and asked him to help her to her room.

The gentlemanly but canny Raggio arranged with a hotel executive to join them when Raggio took the woman back to her room. They all chatted, and the two men left.

Soon afterward, Conforte met with Raggio and told him to back off because the teenager would swear she had had sex with Raggio, ruining his political future.

What Conforte didn't know until his June 1960 extortion trial was that a court-authorized bug captured his profanity-laced threats to Raggio. Eventually, he went to Nevada State Prison for 22 months.

With term limits, there will never be another legislator with 38 years in the Senate, making Raggio, a moderate Republican, the last of his kind in more ways than one.

I knew the cagey senator for 25 years but wish I had known him in 1960 when he was the handsome DA fighting false accusations and crusading against a whoremonger.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison