Author Description

Brothel owners are men reared in the underbelly of society. While that may be mostly true, Walter Plankinton was an exception: a Kansas farm boy/Great Depression baby, whose only association with the street was twice during his teens for about 15 minutes. Strong and fearless, Walter got rich in trucking by working like a smart, industrious mule, later dovetailing all of his business savvy into the design of The Chicken Ranch Brothel in Nevada. But something happened along the way. Although to Walter prostitutes had always been the virgins and straight women the real whores, his girls soon became little more than crops to market. Whoremaster, a biography, reveals aspects of both his subtle and blatant metamorphosis: from country bumpkin to successful, self-made captain of industry, to entrepreneurial pimp. Walter takes us through doors never before breached, partly for revenge, more from vanity: mostly to strut like a peacock before men he would never meet, but who were all wildly envious of him or so he passionately believed. Whoremaster reveals characteristics of prostitutes rarely seen; certainly more is unveiled about the status and character of brothel customers ( johns ) than anywhere before. Quite by accident, Walter and his girls put The Chicken Ranch on the world map. Then a fire, meant to roast him and his girls alive, was lit. Even as media exposed it around the world, local law enforcement virtually ignored it, and a usually hidden side of Nevada was unmasked. Whoremaster contains drama, comedy, and occasionally titillation, while not pornographic. Never boring, it comes across more like fiction than the fact it is.