MYSTERY WIRE — In 1989, Bob Lazar blew the lid off the government’s UFO secrets.
The Lazar dossier
While working at the S-4 base just south of Area 51, Lazar says he saw:
- 9 alien spacecraft: “Certainly these crafts came from another … not just another planet, another solar system entirely. Extremely far away. And they’re here.”
- photos of alien autopsies
- technology of alien origin
His first interview in a Las Vegas parking lot with investigative journalist George Knapp was brief. A silhouetted figure in a van going by the name “Dennis” told a wild story in the only language he knew — the techno-speaking government scientist who was careful not to speculate beyond what he had actually seen with his own eyes.
Lazar later allowed his real identity to be used — as the government tried to erase any trace of Lazar’s employment, and even his education.
The Area 51 phenomenon was born. Since then, tens of thousands of curious visitors have made the journey to Rachel, Nevada, which has become a tourist haven of alien proportions.
Lazar’s account was consistent as the years went by. A lie-detector test didn’t put a dent in his story.
Still, he constantly battled allegations that he was a government pawn. The allegations were either that the government fed him exactly what they wanted the public to know and then discredited him, or that he was a liar who made up the entire story. Several government employees corroborated Lazar’s presence at S-4.
Videos
Links to stories
- Bob Lazar describes alien technology housed at secret S-4 base in Nevada (Nov. 10, 1989)
- Bob Lazar convinced disks were alien, calls UFO secret ‘unfair outright’ (Nov. 13, 1989)
- UFOs: The Best Evidence? Part 2 (May 1, 1990)
- Area 51 knowns and unknowns six years after Bob Lazar’s revelation (Nov. 24, 1995)
- Crowds streamed to Rachel, Nevada, for years hoping for Area 51 UFO glimpses (Nov. 29, 1996)
- Tom DeLonge’s take on Bob Lazar, and the scale of secret bases (April 22, 2016)
- Bob Lazar’s UFO story makes it to the big screen UFO (Dec. 12, 2018)
- Bob Lazar: The man who sent shock waves through UFO circles 30 years ago (May 15, 2019)
- How Bob Lazar interviews match up with Pentagon’s UFO admissions (May 16, 2019)
- UFO Fest means close encounters of a different kind (May 21, 2019)
- Exclusive: ‘Storm Area 51’ joke explodes, little Nevada town prepares (July 17, 2019)
- New York Times reviews cultural phenomenon of #StormArea51 (Oct. 31, 2019)
- Bob Stoldal, George Knapp on challenges of revealing Area 51 story — PODCAST (Nov. 14, 2019)
- Spy plane pilot backs Lazar’s presence at Area 51, secret S-4 base (Nov. 30, 2019)
- Bob Lazar’s accuracy on UFOs, Area 51’s front door, and ‘clearing’ a controversial book (Feb. 20, 2020)
- Area 51 whistleblower takes a lie detector test (April 30, 2020)
Lazar was introduced to Knapp through aviation expert John Lear, who had appeared on Knapp’s “On the Record” program with far-out statements surrounding aliens, UFOs and government conspiracies.
Credibility is a long road, and Lazar’s past involvement in projects from a rocket car to a brothel made him an easy target. Lazar acknowledged the problem, but stuck to his story. Debts and divorces gave his critics more reasons to poke holes in his story, and some scientists have ridiculed his stories as beyond belief.
Seven years after the original interview, the movie “Independence Day” cemented much of the popular lore about Area 51 and aliens, and Lazar’s stories seemed an afterthought.
In recent years, Lazar has attended UFO festivals and continues to draw interest in the media and among UFO groups. In 2018, filmmaker Jeremy Corbell brought Lazar back into the spotlight with the Netflix documentary, “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers.”
As a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast, along with Corbell, Lazar helped inspire the “Storm Area 51” furor in 2019, according to the event’s creator, Matty Roberts.
Timeline
Lazar’s past continues to be a controversial subject.
