In the early 1980s, management at the Chicken Ranch in Pahrump threatened to fine workers $100 for frightening their coworkers with stories about a ghost named Harold. The warning was captured in the 1982 documentary Chicken Ranch, directed by Nick Broomfield and Sandi Sissel, during a staff meeting called after a party at the brothel had gotten a little out of hand.
The woman conducting the meeting had several complaints to address, including excessive drinking, loud music and disruptions that had interfered with a courtesan entertaining a customer. Then she brought up Harold. According to the supervisor, some of the women had been frightening their coworkers by talking about the supposed ghost, particularly late at night when unexplained noises could be heard throughout the building. She announced that the next person caught discussing Harold and scaring another worker would face a $100 fine, which she or any of the housemaids could impose.
The supervisor was clearly unimpressed with Harold’s reputation. She joked that she’d worked at the Chicken Ranch for years without ever meeting the mysterious resident, although she’d certainly welcome the opportunity. She also made her opinion of the supernatural perfectly clear, insisting that ghosts didn’t exist.
The documentary doesn’t explain how Harold’s legend began or whether anyone ever paid the threatened fine. It does establish that ghost stories were circulating among Chicken Ranch workers more than four decades ago. And Harold’s reputation apparently extended well beyond the brothel’s walls, eventually reaching the Halloween broadcasts of legendary paranormal radio host and Pahrump resident Art Bell.
Harold Becomes an Art Bell Legend
Art Bell didn’t have to look far to find a ghost story for his annual Halloween radio broadcasts. On October 30, 1993, the Pahrumpian mentioned during his Ghost to Ghost program that one of the town’s legal brothels had supposedly been home to a ghost named Harold for years. Bell didn’t identify the establishment or elaborate on the story, but Harold’s reputation had apparently traveled beyond the brothel and into the local community.
Three years later, during his October 30, 1996 broadcast, Bell returned to Harold with considerably more detail. He described the ghost as a female apparition that had supposedly been seen by generations of courtesans working at an unnamed Nye County brothel. “Don’t ask me why the name is Harold,” Bell remarked.
According to the legend Bell recounted, any courtesan who saw Harold and managed to touch her red dress could expect to earn $1,000 that night. Bell claimed the prediction had repeatedly proven true, although he offered no supporting evidence or firsthand witness testimony. He also declined to identify the brothel, explaining only that it was a neighbor.
Whether Bell was describing the same Harold discussed in the Chicken Ranch documentary remains uncertain. The shared name, location and longstanding nature of the legend suggest a connection, but neither broadcast explicitly identifies the Chicken Ranch. Still, it’s an amusing contrast: the ghost whose stories had prompted threats of a $100 fine in the early 1980s was, in Bell’s telling, associated with a considerably more profitable outcome.
The BunnyRanch’s Haunted Rooms
In October 2004, the Sci Fi Channel investigated reports of paranormal activity at the Moonlite BunnyRanch in Mound House. The supposed haunting centered on an accommodation identified as VIP Room 13 in an October 23 Reno Gazette-Journal article. Courtesan Danielle recalled a shower turning on by itself while she was entertaining a customer, then restarting about 20 minutes after she shut it off. Another courtesan, Shelly Dushell, reported feeling someone rubbing her shoulder during a party, only to discover that her customer’s hands were nowhere near her. Other workers described flickering lights, unexplained noises and sudden temperature changes.
A second investigation, published by the Nevada Appeal on October 30, referred to the supposedly haunted accommodation as Room 13A. Courtesan Christy described seeing a figure wearing a long black coat approach her bed before disappearing. Another worker, Max, believed the brothel had two ghosts, including an unfriendly male presence that she compared to the creature in the movie Predator. Air Force Amy told the newspaper that a ghost had repeatedly stolen her favorite shade of lipstick.
Owner Dennis Hof was skeptical, although he acknowledged that some workers were reluctant to stay in the room. Hof also told the Gazette-Journal that approximately $4,800 in older currency had been discovered near a sink during a 1992 renovation.
The Sci Fi Channel’s Proof Positive: Evidence of the Paranormal featured the BunnyRanch in an episode that aired in October 2004, but its investigators didn’t establish that the property was haunted. Years later, Air Force Amy acknowledged on her own website that participants had pretended a BunnyRanch room was haunted for the television production. Her admission raises questions about the program’s authenticity, although it doesn’t establish that every experience described by the workers was fabricated.
In September 2012, the Travel Channel’s Paranormal Paparazzi visited the BunnyRanch, where investigators reported a moving door, unusual creaking sounds and a particularly cold room. Hof also introduced an alleged connection between one of the rooms and comedian Andy Kaufman, repeating an account of Kaufman’s visits that remains independently unverified.
Ghosts at the Mustang Ranch
The Mustang Ranch outside Reno also attracted paranormal investigators. In October 2013, the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures visited the property after employees reported disturbing experiences, particularly in a section known as B Hall. Several courtesans claimed they had been held down by an unseen presence, while others reported unexplained bruises and sudden changes in mood after spending time in Room B1. Housekeepers also described having their hair pulled and seeing mysterious figures. Management reportedly became concerned enough to bring in a shaman to cleanse the building.
One of the supposed spirits was associated with Oscar Bonavena, the Argentine heavyweight boxer who was shot and killed outside the original Mustang Ranch in 1976. During the television investigation, a housekeeper described seeing a man in a white shirt standing outside the building who subsequently disappeared. When investigators showed her a photograph of Bonavena, she identified him as the man she’d seen. Bonavena was killed at the original Mustang Ranch location, while buildings from that property were relocated several miles away in September 2004.
A June 2014 episode of Ghost Adventures: Aftershocks featured additional Mustang Ranch accounts, including a claim that a friendly spirit was protecting one employee.
Perhaps the most interesting account came from author Colin Dickey, who visited the Mustang Ranch in November 2014 while researching a magazine profile of owner Lance Gilman and his involvement in bringing Tesla’s battery factory to northern Nevada. As Dickey recounts in his 2016 book, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, he struck up a conversation with a madam he identifies as Tara Atkins while a photographer prepared a shoot. Atkins casually mentioned that the brothel was haunted, leading Dickey to speak with a courtesan he calls Jean, who reportedly had a ghost following her around. A psychic had supposedly identified the spirit as Baby, and Jean had even placed a small fountain in her room after being told that Baby liked water.
Jean showed Dickey two cellphone videos. In the first, she was dancing for a recording intended for her husband when a small luminous orb appeared to move around her head. The light briefly disappeared before returning toward her face, apparently coinciding with her losing her balance and falling. The second recording showed an unusual pattern of light on her bedroom ceiling that resembled the number 13. Atkins suggested the closely spaced digits might actually form the letter B, possibly referring to Baby.
Dickey considered ordinary explanations, including reflections from window blinds and visual artifacts produced by the camera, but admitted that the recordings left him unsettled. He revisited the experience in an October 2025 interview, describing the videos as among the most unusual things he’d encountered while researching purportedly haunted places.
Ghost Stories Told by Nevada Courtesans
Other stories have come directly from courtesans discussing their experiences online. In a July 2021 BrothelLife discussion about haunted brothels, former Bella’s Hacienda Ranch courtesan Dyana Dyamonds recalled an encounter with a woman she believed was the property’s legendary Lady in White.
Dyamonds said the incident occurred in the early 2000s, when she was staying in Room 4 of Bella’s older hallway. One quiet evening, she was returning from doing laundry when she noticed a beautiful woman wearing what appeared to be a Victorian-era white ballroom gown. The stranger had long, dark curls, a petite figure and a hat, which she tipped toward Dyamonds in greeting before disappearing into an adjoining room that was supposed to be empty. Dyamonds said she was so startled that she hurried into her bedroom to collect herself. After that night, she avoided the old hallway and stayed in the newer section of the brothel.
Another courtesan, posting under the name Vanityaffair, described a series of strange occurrences she experienced while working at the Wild Cat brothel. According to her account, a radio would suddenly blast music, toilet paper inexplicably flew into the air, and mirrors repeatedly fell or rocked back and forth. On one occasion, she said, a mirror continued moving even as she held the legs of the table supporting it. She also recalled a loud bang in the kitchen, followed by the discovery of a broom lying in the middle of the floor. The property’s owner reportedly saw another woman on a security camera, although Vanityaffair said nobody else was there. She acknowledged that subsequent owners believed some of the disturbances might have been caused by the building’s uneven foundation.
Vanityaffair also discussed Donna’s Ranch in Wells, where she said she’d arranged for paranormal investigators to examine the property after hearing stories about Room 1. Unlike her experiences at the Wild Cat, the investigation at Donna’s reportedly produced no evidence of a haunting.
Customers have contributed their own stories to the discussion. One Mustang Ranch visitor, who goes by the online handle Prospector Bob, recalled staying in a room in the old Mustang Ranch building where the toilet occasionally flushed without anyone touching it. When he mentioned the problem to a manager, she reportedly shrugged and acknowledged that the staff already knew about it. Another customer, Cobia, described a loud noise that shook the Mustang Ranch building late at night while he was staying in the Safari room. He initially assumed someone was having a particularly enthusiastic party, but said a staff member subsequently told him he was the only person staying in that part of the building.
Dennis Hof and the Kardashian Curse
Dennis Hof introduced another supposed curse in October 2016, when a wildfire destroyed his Reno-area home. The fire broke out almost exactly one year after Lamar Odom was found unconscious at Hof’s Love Ranch South in Crystal on October 13, 2015. Hof told TMZ that he believed Khloé Kardashian and her family had put a hex on him. He also said he planned to spend the following anniversary on a remote island, apparently hoping some distance might protect him from another round of bad luck.
Investigators determined that embers escaped a prescribed burn conducted by the Nevada Division of Forestry, and powerful winds drove the Little Valley Fire into residential areas of Washoe Valley. According to the University of Nevada, Reno, the blaze destroyed 23 homes and 17 outbuildings.
The Supposedly Cursed Love Ranch
Dennis Hof’s association with supernatural folklore continued after his death on October 16, 2018, at Love Ranch South in Crystal, Nevada. The 72-year-old brothel owner died in his bedroom following a birthday celebration and political campaign event the previous evening. Three years earlier, former NBA star Lamar Odom had suffered a near-fatal medical emergency in that same room. In a November 2018 New Yorker article, journalist Claire Vaye Watkins reported that Hof had died in the same bed where Odom was found unconscious in October 2015. Watkins interviewed former Love Ranch madam T. J. Moore, who had personally assisted Odom during the emergency.
In February 2020, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans had acquired Hof’s entire bedroom set from Madam Suzette for his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas. Bagans told the newspaper that Suzette believed the bed was cursed. Visitors to the museum have also described a photograph of Hof displayed alongside the furnishings, supposedly showing a demonic figure reflected in a mirror. A firsthand account of the museum exhibit describes the photograph and the story presented to visitors, although the original image, photographer and circumstances surrounding its creation have not been independently authenticated.
The bedroom’s reputation eventually inspired an episode of the supernatural anthology series The Haunted Museum. Titled The Cursed Brothel Bed, the dramatized story premiered in October 2023, five years after Hof’s death.
Former Love Ranch courtesan Alice Little offered another contribution to the property’s paranormal reputation in May 2022. Speaking to the Daily Star in comments subsequently reported by The U.S. Sun, Little speculated that Hof’s ghost might haunt the brothel if it reopened, even joking that his spirit might continue his habit of inappropriately touching women. She suggested that some form of exorcism or spiritual cleansing should take place before any reopening. Little wasn’t describing a ghost she’d personally encountered.
That reopening never occurred. Nye County had already shut down the Love Ranch before Hof’s death over building alterations, fire-safety violations and overdue licensing fees. The property subsequently changed ownership and fell into disrepair. In November 2024, the Pahrump Valley Times reported that the brothel’s buildings had been demolished following their acquisition by an outspoken opponent of legal prostitution. We examine the property’s ownership change and demolition in What Happens When Nevada Brothels Are Sold.
Whatever spirits might have been rumored to inhabit Love Ranch South no longer have the original buildings to wander through. Some of the property’s most notorious bedroom furnishings, however, survived the demolition and remain associated with one of Las Vegas’s best-known paranormal attractions.
Nevada’s brothel ghost stories have been passed along by courtesans, customers, owners and paranormal investigators for decades. Some of the people who experienced these strange encounters firmly believed they were supernatural, while others were skeptical or simply enjoyed telling a good ghost story. The television investigations brought the stories to larger audiences, but much of the folklore originated with the people who lived and worked inside these establishments. Whether the ghosts themselves were ever there or are still lurking in the halls of Nevada’s legal bawdy houses is a question that remains unanswered.
Image Credits
Featured illustration — Labeauce et Minne, apparition of a white lady, illustration in La Lecture Journal de Roman, no. 121 (1857). Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Chicken Ranch — Brian Redbeard, Chicken Ranch, Pahrump, photographed June 23, 2007. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Air Force Amy — DeanneSalinger, portrait of Air Force Amy, July 21, 2007. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dennis Hof — Daniel Dacumos, Dennis Hof at the 2006 Adult Video Network Convention; existing Wikimedia Commons cropped version (cropped by Asmithca). Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0