All language subtitles for Secrets.of.the.Bunny.Ranch.S01E02.Here.Pretty.Kitty.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR.en[cc]

♪

Cathouse was my first
introduction to, like...

prostitution.

I arrived while they were
filming Cathouse on HBO.

Cathouse put the
Moonlite Bunny Ranch

and Dennis Hof
on the map.

Suddenly,
everybody in America

knew what the
Bunny Ranch was.

The show flaunted the
amount of money

that girls can make.

I'm a businessman. I'm a
partner with these girls.

You see the girls...

making money
on the show.

And, then you're like,
let's go for it.

Younger women
were being drawn in

by the show itself.

They're coming because they
bought into this idea

that this is this hidden gem
of a career opportunity.

Cathouse definitely
made it seem like it was...

the Playboy Mansion.

It wasn't like
that at all.

It was like,
oh [beep].

It was sold as this
illusion of power.

[Dennis] They're independent
contractors.

They don't have to work
unless they want to.

But that's not
the reality.

And you become

constantly trying
to pay off your tab.

I felt, I'm never gonna be
able to leave here

because I can't
pay that debt off.

Its debt bondage.

This is brutal out here.

Dennis owned all of us.

If you don't do
exactly what they want,

they become violent.

Once you're there,
you're not allowed to leave.

I was trapped.

♪

It was no longer safe.

♪ [moody pop]

♪ You put me under
the covers. ♪

♪ For all the world
to see. ♪

♪ But I never
recovered. ♪

♪ You never
cared about me. ♪

♪ So now you're
being uncovered. ♪

♪ I kept all
the receipts. ♪

♪ You and all
of the others. ♪

♪ Under a fantasy. ♪

♪

♪

[Crew] Interview
Dolly Hart.

Around the time
that I caught

a glimpse of Cathouse,

I want to say I was
probably like 11, 12.

Being something that
was on late at night

that my parents didn't
really want me to watch.

And as a kid, that only
makes you more intrigued.

They would go to bed,

and I would sneak
out of my room,

go downstairs,
and I would watch it

with the volume
turned down low.

[Dolly] The girls looked
like they were having fun.

I think what got me
the most is, like,

the camaraderie
between the women.

♪

Just that,
seeing how...

you can make
friends there.

I'm over here thinking,
like, when I grow up,

I'm gonna visit
the Bunny Ranch.

[Alice] I just thought it was
like the coolest thing, like...

damn, getting paid to
just be gorgeous, like...

Yes,
that sounds amazing.

So I decided I'm gonna
go to the Bunny Ranch.

♪

After the first season of
Cathouse had been on the air,

young women wanted to...

live in the glamor
image of it.

And so, the show
began to attract

younger women to
the Bunny Ranch.

It kind of grew on me as
we were working there,

that people were
being drawn in

by the show itself.

It became clear to me
that we were part of

the recruiting system
for the Bunny Ranch.

I, I, I did not
feel good about it.

I did not feel
good about that.

♪

In the early 2000s,

Cathouse the
television series,

focuses on the prostitutes
at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch.

It is a phenomenal success.

It's seen by 2.6 million
people in its first airing.

Dennis Hof is getting
free advertising,

and HBO is also
getting a money-maker.

Once mainstream
got a taste of us...

oh, it was
just golden, right?

They wanted more
because

their ratings went
through the roof.

It was like full blown
celebrity-ism.

[indistinct chatter]

I didn't think
that it would be

all over the
place like it was.

I had no idea, until I saw
the show dubbed in Spanish,

and I realized,
wow,

this, this is
actually a big deal.

[Dennis] We've taken
my house, my Cathouse,

into the homes of
people in 27 languages,

in 49 countries, and you
know what they do?

They look at it, and say,
"That ain't so bad."

[News] Dennis Hof is a
multi-millionaire.

[Dennis] I don't
recruit girls.

They come to me.

[News] The Bunny Ranch name
has become so successful,

it's now a highly
watched series on HBO,

appropriately called
"Cathouse."

And the biggest
cat of all, Dennis Hof,

says this is just the
beginning of

a budding bunny empire.

The Bunny Ranch was
Dennis's first brothel.

It was in a little
circular area,

almost like a
little strip mall,

and it was all brothels that
had different brothel owners.

Dennis didn't like having
his competition

right outside
his front door,

so he started
buying them up.

His whole focus was on
getting these girls

to make him really insane
amounts of money.

[Alice] He was like
the Monopoly Man

of all the brothels.

He would just buy them
off of people,

and he'd buy one,
then the next,

and the next,
and the next, and the next.

[Dennis] In northern Nevada,
where the Bunny Ranch is,

I have four places
up there.

But you fly into Reno.

I have three places in
Southern Nevada

that are one hour
from the strip.

He was very successful.

He was making money left-
I mean, left and right.

♪

He just started
transforming them.

He cleaned them up.

[Amy] He was like
the remodel king.

I mean,
"Pull that carpet out.

Make this bigger."

[Glen] He just completely
renovated everything,

and turned them into

multi-million-dollar
investments.

[Alice] So there's this
constant need for

new ladies to be
entering the industry.

Not to mention that
there's a certain

appeal to fresh faces.

And Dennis loved
the new ladies.

[Dennis] These are the girls
from the new season

right here,
all these hot blondes.

[Host] How do you
recruit the women?

[Dennis] We don't
recruit the girls.

Uh, we recruit the girls
by them watching

our TV show on HBO.

They'll hear me
on Howard Stern,

or they'll see us
in magazines.

That's how we do this.

[Amy] People wanted
to be on the show.

Oh my God,
people came from all over.

If you look at
the mechanics of

how it is that
they wind up there,

it's because of
Cathouse.

Women trust women so,

when they see them
on HBO,

and then apply
for a job there,

it's part of the exploiter's
marketing toolbox

to make sure that you
normalize an atrocity.

[Racquel] Cathouse was
promoting a very

enticing message
for the viewers

that was really
nefarious.

What it says to us, frankly,
is that it can't be that bad

if so many people are
interested in doing it.

[Dennis] These are
all applications. New York.

Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Clarksville, Tennessee.

Miami, Florida.

Some of the good ones
do slip through.

That's why it is
good to be, ah, um...

consistent and keep going
and keep emailing me.

♪

[Tom] Many more young women
from places like...

Indiana and Ohio

learned about the
Bunny Ranch and came.

♪

[Dolly] I just saw, like,
the velvet couch,

the pink bunny house,

and it was like,
this is so cute.

As a girl, I was having
trouble making friends

because I'm like,
this first-generation little

Mexican girl getting
bullied left and right and,

being labelled
the ugly duckling.

I have extremely curly hair,
and so...

I guess I was very
racially ambiguous,

so I was being
called the n-word.

It was brutal.

And, I didn't come from
a privileged background,

so I was working
17-hour days,

6 days a week.

You're tired,
you're burnt out.

And you see the girls

making money on
the show, and...

then you're like,

"Let's go for it.
Let's do it."

[Racquel] Cathouse really
packages prostitution

in this neat, little,
cute package,

and it makes it very
marketable to young women.

The story really comes
together in the editing booth.

Those are decisions
that are made by HBO.

The design and music of the
opening credits of Cathouse

feel like a sitcom.

♪ [upbeat] ♪

♪

[Racquel] And when
we think of sitcoms,

we automatically
think about something

that is happy,
that is fun,

that is light in tone.

It predisposes young women
to like these characters,

and I find myself rooting
for the people that

I'm supposed to root for,
according to the show.

And I,
I know better,

and yet I still
feel that pull.

Yeah, we did get a
number of girls who came

after seeing the show,
like Brooke Taylor.

[Racquel]
In episode one of

the second season
of Cathouse,

the young woman,
Brooke,

we see her for
the first time,

she has pigtails,
you know,

she looks like
Cindy Lou Who.

[Woman] A little nervous.
[laughing]

[Brooke] Oh.
That's okay. Me too.

[laughing]
We'll be nervous together.

- So you're going too?
- Yes.

Oh, God, all right.

Great, great, great.
Well, hey!

[Racquel] I find it
disturbing because

it's making it cutesy
and infantilizing them.

It's making it as if
they're little girls...

as if these women are
not now about to go

and do very, you know,
like adult work.

♪ Here, pretty kitty.
Here, pretty kitty. ♪

♪ Here... ♪

♪ pretty kitty. ♪

- Brooke?
- Yes, hi.

It's nice to meet you.

We would lean toward music
that could be kind of cheeky.

You were going to be
a cat in the Cathouse.

And that's the name of
the show, is Cathouse.

So, here comes
Kitty, Kitty.

But I didn't think of it as,
"come one, come all."

There wasn't a
Snidely Whiplash, you know.

"Here, Kitty Kitty,
you know, come to,

come to destroy your life,"
or anything like that.

It's, I guess, a testament
of my naivety.

[Tom] This was the kind of
avalanche of girls

who had found out by
seeing the first season.

- Can you see it?
- Oh, I do see it.

Oh my God.
[laughing]

[Jill] Oh my God,
I remember filming this.

[Brooke] Bunny Ranch!
Let's do it.

[Jill] Well, I...

if a girl is of age...

you know, I mean,

we ended up getting,
you know,

after the show
started airing,

getting a lot of people
that came in,

you know, some girls.
But yeah, I mean...

I guess I never
thought of it that way.

As a recruitment thing.

[Dolly] Cathouse definitely
made it seem like it was...

the Playboy Mansion with

Bunny playmates

jumping on each other,
tickle fighting.

But it was
nothing like that.

♪ [menacing]

Not everything
you see on TV is a reality.

I love your show on HBO.
I've been watching it.

It's great, The Bunny Ranch.
[Dennis] Yeah.

At the time
I was at HBO,

HBO was really at the
top of their game.

They were very, very popular.
Very, very successful.

You had shows
like The Sopranos.

And HBO always wanted
to be a little edgy,

and so there were a
number of programs

that were very edgy,
sexually. Sex sells.

HBO were among the
first of television

to really bank
on that notion.

But Cathouse was
glamorizing the sex trade.

It was glamorizing pimps.

It was not looking at the
suffering of the women

who are in
these brothels.

So, after four years,
I left HBO.

I went to this organization
called Equality Now.

And when Cathouse
aired for the first time,

we wondered at the time

how we would deal with

sexual exploitation
as entertainment.

[Suzette] I try to make it
as nice as possible,

so they don't really
want to leave.

They want to stay here
and have fun.

[Taina] There's
free-flowing alcohol

and everybody's
laughing.

There's a pool.

I mean, it's a beautiful
marketing ploy to recruit...

young, vulnerable women
to try it out.

Dennis had
underage girls,

who weren't
quite 18,

sending him nude photos
and things like that.

He loved the idea of
hiring a girl and

having her start when
she was 18 years old.

He loved young girls because
you can control them.

It's all about control.

♪

He had people that worked
for him that would sit outside

Dayton High School and
Carson High School.

Tried to recruit
young women.

There's a restaurant really
close to the Bunny Ranch.

He would host
teen nights.

He would talk to the girls.

♪

[Brenda] Like,
"You're so pretty.

When you get older, I would
like to have you come

and work for me."

It was grooming,
absolutely, 100%.

Grooming, manipulation.

So, when I first
got onto the

Bunny Ranch website,

I was looking at
all the girls...

and seeing who was there,
and of course,

the famous ones
were there, um...

And then I noticed
their sister brothels,

and I was like,
well, okay, maybe...

I should apply
to one of these.

I actually applied for
Kit Kat 'cause I'm like,

the Bunny Ranch is
kind of intimidating.

♪

And on the day that I was
travelling towards Nevada

and the brothels,
I was definitely nervous.

But, more than anything, excited.

But upon, like,

arriving to the
actual location...

at first I was like, wait
a minute, like, we're...

out here in the
boonies, like...

[laughs] you know,
it doesn't look like that

on the show.

♪

When I arrived
at the Bunny Ranch,

it was this little, like,

almost
trailer-looking house.

And I got there while they
were filming Cathouse.

♪

It was really eerie.

There was all these young
girls there, and I remember...

when they were filming
some scene, it was like,

I remember hearing
the loud footsteps

as they were kind of
running through the halls

playfully with the cameras

and trying to make it out
like it was this playful time.

♪

And I had already been a
prostitute for about

five years when I arrived
at the Bunny Ranch.

So, I knew
that these kids

had no idea
what it's really like.

They had no clue what
prostitution takes out of you.

♪

Your dignity, your worth
as a human being,

your treatment in society.

It is not like Cathouse.

♪

[Dolly] The first time
I met Dennis,

I was like, "Holy [beep],
this really is Dennis."

From, like,
I seen this man on TV.

He welcomes the new
group of the week,

and that's where he does
the rundown of how,

like, money splitting
works, and...

to follow the Bunny Bible,
and don't be disrespectful.

The house rules definitely
made sense to me.

[Bekah] Yeah, I remember
the Bunny Bible.

I remember learning
all these rules.

They definitely try to just
legitimize prostitution and

the brothels, that this is
a normal employee workplace,

like this is HR.

[Amy] The Bunny Bible
was all the rules.

There's always
a lot of rules.

[Alice] Condoms
are required.

[Shelly] There was
no drugs allowed.

[Amy] You could choose
who you slept with.

Don't do anything
sexual in the parlor.

♪

But the rules didn't
apply to Dennis.

[Dennis] Come on,
girls, light it up.

[Bekah] These rules are
from the perspective of,

this is to keep you safe.

But it felt like just a way
to control all the women.

[Dennis] I'm a businessman
that supplies a place

and an opportunity for
ladies to work,

and we share
the proceeds.

The last thing I am
is, is, is a pimp.

♪

[Bekah] I remember standing
at my first line up.

It was so, so weird.
You know,

the bell rings and you know
that a customer has shown up,

and everybody has to
hurry up and get there

for the lineup so he can
look at each person.

And it was always like a
nerve-wracking experience,

because you're standing
there in a lineup of just

the most beautiful women
on the face of the planet,

AND I am 4'8" and
I have colleagues

that are like 6'2"
and I'm like,

head level with
their boobs.

[Dolly] My first lineup,

of course,
I was nervous.

I had no idea, like, would
I even be good at this?

Dennis always said that
sex work empowered women.

The power's in
the negotiation.

♪

[Diana]
You are merchandise.

You negotiate prices
based on...

if I knock my price down $50
and he thinks I'm pretty,

maybe he'll go with me
instead of her.

[Dolly]
The first time...

that I ever did the

full-service sex work, um,

I thought, what if this dude
starts off good,

but then halfway through
switches up?

Like, what if he attacks?
Men are scary.

It was like, oh,
this job is gonna be

a little harder than
I thought.

♪

I learned
very quickly,

in this line of work,

they really don't give a
[beep] what you look like

as long as you're
blonde and white.

So, that was very
disheartening,

and it was very difficult

for me to make
money at first.

[Taina] What Cathouse
doesn't say is that

it's much easier to get in
than it is to get out.

It's very, very
hard to get out.

Prostitution is not a
common job like any other.

Having some hot, sweaty dude
hunching over you

and trying to get
whatever rape fantasy

he has in his mind played
out by choking you,

or whatever position
that his wife won't do.

This is access
to your body...

to your soul.

There's no work that,
that takes out of you

what prostitution
takes out of you.

♪ [suspenseful]

♪

Look...

Dennis' world was buying
and selling people.

♪

[Bekah] Dennis traded
human bodies

just like he would
have a used car.

You are a product that
is to be bought and used,

and then discarded.

And women are
just commodities.

[Dennis] People are working,
developing new product

for me right now in the back
seat of a car somewhere,

because 18 years
from now

they'll be coming
to work for me.

[Racquel] Dennis Hof took

whatever rules he used in
his timeshare practice

to prostitution in Cathouse.

You see every single one
of these rules in practice.

[Dennis] It's the
customer's job

to get you to
do this free...

or for very small money.

It's your job to take
their house,

and their car,
and their 401K plan.

Now, somewhere in
the middle,

you got a happy buyer
and a happy seller.

♪

[Racquel] It's really
important to note that

when Dennis is giving
the women advice on

how to negotiate
higher rates,

that it also is
self-serving because...

the brothel has
a 50/50 split,

meaning that the
house gets 50%,

and the women
get 50%.

But the women don't
even take home 50%

because they also have
to pay for supplies.

♪

[Dolly] Dennis does the
rundown of how we split it.

He was doing the 50/50.

And I was like,
okay, that's fine.

And then he said, "Oh,
well, that includes tips."

And I'm like...
That's horse [beep].

And then, he's like,
"That includes gifts."

So, he had a girl
split a car

that one of her clients
gave her...

made her, like, pay out
the other half of the car.

And I'm over here like,
why did you tell him?

[laughing]
Why did you tell him?

♪

[DeAnne] They booked
$1,000 maybe...

on a good day.

When they got paid out,
the brothel took their 500.

Now from the girl's 500,
they're given a card

that shows all the money
that was deducted.

[Bekah] They don't explain
that your room and board

is gonna be coming out of
your 50% of the money.

[DeAnne] $45 a day,
seven days a week.

♪

[Bekah] So is
all your supplies.

♪

We had to buy
our clothing.

We had to buy
the condoms.

♪

[Diana] Get our hair and
our makeup done.

[Shelly] We had
to buy the lube.

We had to buy
the sex toys.

♪

[Alice] Pay the
photographer.

♪

$80 for the sheriff card.

[DeAnne] You have to pay if
you want to do your laundry,

you need to tip
the housekeeper.

You need to tip the staff.

The cashier expects a tip.

♪

Everybody's got
their hands in that money.

[Bekah] They take as
much money as possible.

Your little 50% just
basically dwindles down.

♪

[DeAnne] And that
was the norm.

And you would
sit there at the cashier

when the
money came in,

and you would hear
over and over again,

"Is that all I've got?"

[Diana] You could go
days without

having a client.

But the tab grew,
and it grew, and it grew,

and you become...

constantly trying
to pay off your tab.

That's why it was
called debt bondage.

♪

[Bekah] There are
many girls there

that are falling in debt.

And that's a position you
don't ever want to be in

at the brothel.

♪

That means that whenever
a customer finally does

pick them, they have to
do whatever he wants,

no matter if they
want to or not.

♪

The brothel is designed
to make money for

the pimp, for the house.

It's not at all in favor of

the women that work there.

And the brothel
owner always wins.

[DeAnne] I saw women
come into the brothel

and they had a certain
set of boundaries.

For instance, they didn't do
certain types of sex acts.

But as they became more
and more desperate

and they needed money,

their personal
boundaries changed.

Suddenly they were
doing things

that they didn't
feel right about.

They lost themselves.

When you're desperate,
you don't have a choice.

You're gonna do what
you can to survive.

♪

And that's not
empowerment at all.

♪

I learned very quickly that
it wasn't like the show...

that a lot of the men that
would come through there

were very racist.

And I was like, oh, no,

I should totally be
making more money,

but I know
why I'm not.

It made me angry.
And then,

I just started
talking [beep] to the men,

and they'd be like,
"Alright! Sold!"

It was weird. I had to be
mean to get bookings.

The meaner I was to them,

the more they booked.

Because it's like
they wanted to see...

a brown girl get
riled up or something.

It just sucked again that
I had to work harder

than I should have.
And meanwhile,

you could see the
white women walk out

with just their PJs
and get picked.

The reality isn't
the same as the show.

[chanting] HBO,
the network pimp.

HBO,
you've hit a new low!

Cathouse has got to go!

[Taina] So, when Cathouse
first was being aired,

we decided to protest HBO.

HBO,
the network pimp!

[Taina] The protest
was in front of

HBO headquarters
in Manhattan.

[Taina at protest]
It is absolutely critical

that HBO take a
very close look

at the types
of programs they...

put on the air
that actually degrades

and objectifies
women and girls.

I just remember people
walking by like

they didn't quite
understand, like,

why we were protesting,
or what, what,

sort of, what the problem
was with Cathouse.

Like, what are
they talking about?

So, it was the only way to
raise awareness about abuse

and what the impact of
mainstreaming violence

does to human beings,
especially women and girls.

The show was mainly
produced by women,

that is, Sheila Nevins
was at the top and,

and everybody under Sheila
on the HBO side

were all women.
And Patti Kaplan,

who was the...

director-producer
of the show.

[Host] The New York Post
gave you a bad review.

They said, "This is a bad
infomercial for hookers."

They say it's not
journalistic,

it's trite,
it's phoney.

Maybe even more damning,
they say it's boring.

Were you trying to do
sort of a journalistic-

[Patti] It's so,
so not boring.

[Host] Right there we see a
business transaction.

I mean, the guy looks like
he's ordering

off the menu
at McDonald's.

[Patti] It's something
nobody's seen.

Nobody's seen.

And only HBO can do
this kind of a program.

[Protester] Why is
Sheila Nevins of HBO...

leading this culture

in her network?

Can someone please call
Sheila Nevins down here now?

Sheila! Can you
hear me, Sheila?

Can you come
down here?

There's a few people
that want to talk to you.

We want to know why...

you think this is the way

to build a
successful network.

[Taina] The people who make
money from the sex trade,

they are unbelievable
marketers.

They wanted prostitution
to be mainstreamed.

They want it to be normalized.

And Mr. Pimp Dennis Hof,

the ultimate marketer,
tried to do that.

[Dennis] Hello. Thank you
for having me here

at the world's
oldest university

to discuss the
world's oldest profession.

Prostitution.

[Taina]
"It's the oldest profession"?

That's a slogan.
It means nothing.

It's the oldest
form of oppression.

[Dennis] You know what
the exploitation is?

The exploitation
is on us men,

who don't get enough
variety, quality,

or type of sex
that we want.

[laughing & applauding]

That's exploitation!

♪

[Bekah] I was a
high school dropout.

And, I mean,
I was homeless.

And so I was forced into
prostitution at 17 years old.

My pimp had forced me to
get a fake identification

that showed me as older.

The reason I went to
the Bunny Ranch

was because I had
another pimp.

I was forced to go work
at the Bunny Ranch

because my pimp
would send us there,

if we were getting
arrested too much

in Las Vegas and our
face was getting

too known by the vice.

I was being pimped out
by one man to be

pimped out by another man,
Dennis Hof.

I had
firsthand knowledge of

Dennis and Suzette
working with pimps

who supplied them
with women.

If a pimp has a reputation
of having very well-trained

women who aren't a problem,
they're probably the best

working girls, are some
of the ones with pimps.

They're terrified,
they're controlled.

They've been trained.

They've been
indoctrinated.

That's a lot less work
for the brothel.

[Bekah] Suzette and
Dennis both knew

all the girls that were
being trafficked

that had pimps
outside of the brothel.

You know the girls that
are getting beaten?

I mean, the branding that
we would have, you know,

we would have the
same matching tattoos.

It was my pimp,
his initials.

That's where all of
our brands were,

was on the
back of our neck.

So I wound up covering
that with a big tree.

They didn't care about
my situation at all.

All they cared about was,
was I performing?

I never felt like there
was somebody that

I could have
said anything to.

It just felt like
no one cared.

[Dolly] Management did not
care if you were being

called some type
of slur, but if...

one of the black
or brown girls...

said anything to hurt one
of the little white girl's

feelings, like, we were
seen as the aggressor,

and we would immediately
get us a talking to

in the office.

That's where
it was like...

this is brutal
out here.

[Dennis]
Our system is flawless.

We just don't have
any problems.

And that's why we don't have
any underage girls in here.

[Bekah] The brothels
try to say like, oh, well,

there's no trafficking that
takes place in brothels.

That is simply not true.

When I had to go to the local
sheriff's office to get

your local sheriff's card to
work at the Bunny Ranch,

I had my fake social security
number, my fake address,

my fake birthday,
my fake name.

And here I was in this
state licensing agency

getting a work card to go
work for this legal pimp.

The whole system just
encouraged itself.

♪

I was constantly checking in
with my pimp over the phone,

via text message,
letting him know, kind of,

how much money I had.

And he would tell me
I needed to go put

X amount of money
in the bank.

It felt like I was kind of
free for a moment.

♪

♪

I almost felt like I was back
to being normal, in a way,

that I was able to
drive my own car

and go and do something.

♪

But then, I had
to go right back.

I had to turn around and

go right back in
through the gates.

And that is the
moment I realized

that while I was
at the Bunny Ranch,

I gave Dennis Hof
50% of the money,

and I gave my other pimp
50% of the money.

I was literally having sex
with strangers for nothing.

Dennis was notorious
for just partying,

which meant have sex with
whoever he wanted

and not giving them
any money.

My pimp told me that

if he ever tried to
party with me,

to just stay as far away
from him as I could,

because of course,
he wasn't gonna let me

free [beep] someone, right?

So I knew anytime Dennis
was around in the parlor

or wherever, I would try to
kind of stay away from him.

[Dolly] I'm sure Dennis is
very capable of assault

'cause he is a man
who's rarely told no.

He definitely is a predator.

He just knew
who he could, like,

coerce and who
he can manipulate.

He could be a real
piece of [beep]

[Dolly] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

The last one was at
his birthday party.

He expected me to have
like a threesome

with him
and this other girl.

I went to go say happy
birthday, and he's like,

"Hey, would you be down
for a threesome?"

And I was like,
"Am I getting paid?"

And he's like,
"No, it's my birthday."

And I was like,
hm, like, no. [laughs]

Dennis was intimidating.

You can never
trust these dudes,

but I've never
been a fool.

I'm like, money first.
[laughs] Money first.

[Bekah] I saw the absolute
worst of humanity

as a prostitute.

My pimp taught us how to
protect ourselves

because violence
is so common.

If you don't perform,
if you don't do

exactly what they want,
they fly into a rage.

They become violent.

Around the time
that I was there,

Vince Neil from Motley Crue

came to visit Dennis
at the brothel.

Filed by an Andrea Terry,

about what happened to her.

[Rebekah reading]
"He tried to get me

to touch his penis.

I reminded him that
we had to pay before

any sexual acts
could take place.

With such a rage
in his eyes,

he grabbed me by the throat

and pushed me against
the window frame,

holding me there,
yelling at me,

then yanked me down
towards the bed.

He was more angry than
I've ever seen someone."

♪

[Bekah] What offends me
the most about this story

is that instead of Dennis
kicking Vince Neil out

for assaulting
one of his employees,

he took him to the bar,

bought him another drink,

and then paid for him to
party with some other girl.

I mean, they...

they don't protect you.

In the end, the police
actually charged Vince Neil,

and he pleaded no contest.

But if the Bunny Ranch
and Dennis Hof

had their way, no one
would have ever known.

♪

[Dolly] I hadn't booked
in like two weeks.

Two or three weeks,
and...

you still have to
pay room and board,

even if you're
not booking.

That was just
adding up.

And, I was like, I know
this is not my fault

because my regulars
are still coming.

But, no new bookings?
No- What?

Like,
something's happening.

So, I noticed emails.

A bunch of emails,
client emails in my inbox,

and I was like,
oh, great!

I go to refresh,
they're gone.

They're gone.

I caught my emails
being rerouted, but...

now I was like,
I'm gonna be a target.

The big difference I did
see between Cathouse

and the reality
of it is that...

the women don't have
your back all the time.

It isn't this big sorority.

It's very manipulative...

conniving, and...

we had to fight harder,
I mean,

the Women of Color
had to fight harder when...

somebody was messing
with our money.

♪

[Bekah] Every time
I needed to go into town,

I had to talk to Suzette and
have to ask permission

to be able to leave
my workplace,

like I didn't have control
over my own movement.

And I remember having to
argue with Suzette

for just being able to
leave the premises.

♪

[Taina] The Bunny Ranch
is a fortress.

[gate buzzing]

You cannot go in without
being buzzed in.

You cannot leave without
being buzzed out.

[Bekah] You have
multiple gates.

There's security cameras.

I saw numerous times
that girls would be

on the phone trying to
borrow from other girls,

trying to get money for
a ticket out of there,

sometimes they didn't even
have cash to pay a driver

to take them
to the airport.

[Bekah] If you do owe
money to the brothel,

you can't just
walk away.

You can't just say,
"You know what?

I'm gonna call a cab
and I'm gonna leave,"

like that,
that's not possible.

People try to say
it's a regular job.

Who doesn't
leave their job?

♪ [somber piano]

♪

You're literally
there 24/7.

That,
that's not normal.

It's like they're being
kept in captivity.

♪

[Dennis] This is an
opportunity for you either

to make a lot of money
in 4 or 5 years,

invest it properly,

and never have to work
another day in your life.

Or, to make a good
amount of money

in a short period
of time every month

so you can be
with your kids,

you can work on your
writing or acting career,

or your studies.

I get a lot of girls that are
paying off their school loans.

[Taina] It's a myth that
there'd be a lot of...

millionaires of, of
women in prostitution.

The minute they
leave prostitution,

they are in abject poverty,

and it's very, very
difficult for them to

rebuild their lives without
extensive medical,

psychological,
psychiatric assistance.

♪

[Dolly] It started getting
a little rougher,

and very unfair, and...

having quite a few
debacles with, like,

racist girls...

in the house,
and racist clients.

It was no longer safe.

♪

The women
who had no family,

who had no one
to help them,

they got
stuck there.

The women who could
get out of the brothel

got out of the brothel
with their own money,

or have family
get them out,

or a pimp would
pull them out.

♪

[Bekah] My pimp finally
let me come back to Vegas...

when he felt like he had
punished me enough.

When he had taught me
a lesson that

I better be smarter out
there in the streets

and stop getting
arrested.

I felt relieved.

Even though I was gonna
stay in prostitution,

I didn't want to be at the
brothel anymore, and...

I remember packing
my stuff up

and getting in
my little car,

and I put the Bunny Ranch
in my rear view mirror.

My pimp, as horrible
as he was,

at least let me
leave that prison.

♪

I wasn't able to get away
from my pimp until the

federal authorities
finally became involved.

He was racking up credit
card debt in my name,

so I had about $50,000 of
credit card debt.

I had a $600,000 home
in my name

that got foreclosed.

I had two $80,000 cars
that got repossessed.

They arrested me and they
thought maybe I would snitch,

but because I was too afraid
to testify against him,

I wound up
taking a charge...

and serving 13 months
in federal prison

for conspiracy to
commit tax evasion.

I served my 13 months
in prison, and so...

I moved back to Texas
January 7th of 2012 and...

started my life over.

I wound up going
back to school.

Lo and behold,
I'm actually pretty smart.

I wound up getting my
master's degree in

criminology and
criminal justice.

In 2013, I launched
Bekah Speaks Out.

I train
law enforcement officers,

social workers, nurses,
across the country

on human trafficking
education.

My name's
Bekah Charleston.

I spent some time working at

the Moonlite Bunny Ranch
for Dennis Hof,

and they like to claim
that that prevents

trafficking from happening,
but it doesn't.

And then one day, I remember
I was out at dinner at

a work event and CBS
called me on my phone.

It hasn't really
sunk in yet.

[News] Bekah Charleston says
receiving a full pardon

from President
Donald Trump is a gift.

[Bekah] And so,
to finally have it happen

the day before Christmas Eve
is just surreal.

And now, I have a
shiny piece of paper

that the president signed
that says he forgives me

for being a victim of
human trafficking.

Honestly, it takes so much
strength to be

vulnerable enough to begin
the healing process.

It's a really hard shift
that a lot of people

are never
able to make.

[Dolly] You know,
Dennis Hof,

he has definitely
gained financial...

power and control
off of, like,

women's
autonomy and...

our labour, our...

and let's be-
our talents to maintain...

like, clients.

You need to have
personality.

There's a reason why
there's returning clients.

He thinks that it's all
'cause of him.

♪

I finally...

started...

[sighing] to detach
from the brothels

because they were
messing with my money.

And that's when I started,
like, packing up.

And, yeah...

I left.

If I could talk to my
11-year-old me

watching Cathouse...

Oh, man.
[laughs]

Sorry if I get
emotional in this, um...

What I would say to
that little girl

is don't let...

any of the [beep] things
thrown your way break you.

Don't diminish yourself to
make others comfortable.

Be comfortable being you.

♪

I was a working girl
for Dennis Hof.

I just thought, oh, God,
it's gonna be so much fun.

He said, "You get to
pick and choose

who you have sex with."

[Dennis] I don't make
anybody do anything ever.

[Tom] I know that there
are allegations of

rape and violence.

The job of the documentary
was not to do

an investigation into
the Bunny Ranch.

The job was to create
a good time series.

[Dennis] We're at
the Bunny Ranch.

We're having fun.

I just thought, oh, God,
it's gonna be so much fun.

And I thought it was safe,
but it wasn't safe.

[DeAnne] He was
a very sick man.

He hurt a lot of people.

[Dennis]
I'm a straight guy.

I pay my taxes,
I do the right things.

He's a monster.
I was molested,

and beaten, and raped
on a regular basis.

Girls come in, shut the door,
put a blanket over you

and beat the
[beep] out of you.

The Bunny Ranch is kind
of like Walmart or church.

You don't have to go
unless you want to.

[DeAnne] If you make
Dennis unhappy,

he is gonna hurt you.

This feels like
organized crime.

He was sort of a
degenerate Tony Soprano.

He thought he could do
whatever he wanted.

[DeAnne] He had
gotten so big...

that he couldn't be
contained anymore.