Bob Lazar
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 8
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Lazar |
| On the Timeline | 8 events, 1987–2023 |
Robert Scott "Bob" Lazar is an American who claimed in 1989 that he had worked on reverse-engineering alien spacecraft at a secret site he called "S-4", near the Area 51 base in Nevada. His story, first told to Las Vegas television reporter George Knapp, made Area 51 world-famous as a supposed home of alien technology. Investigations have found no record supporting his claimed education or employment at S-4, and he has had several legal problems, but he retains a large following.[1][2]
Early life
Lazar was reportedly born on 26 January 1959 in Coral Gables, Florida, and raised in Westbury on Long Island, New York, graduating from W. Tresper Clarke High School in 1976. He attended Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles.[1]
Los Alamos
In 1982 Lazar worked as a technician for Kirk-Mayer, a contractor that supplied staff to Los Alamos National Laboratory. A 1982 laboratory phone directory lists him under Kirk-Mayer, and a local newspaper article that year described him as a "physicist", although the reporter did not verify the title. He was not listed in the February 1983 directory, suggesting his job lasted under nine months.[1][3]
The S-4 claims
In mid-1988 Lazar met UFO promoter John Lear. On 15 May 1989, KLAS-TV reporter George Knapp interviewed him in silhouette under the name "Dennis"; he appeared publicly under his own name later that year.[1][4] Lazar said that from about December 1988 to early 1989 he was employed at S-4, near Papoose Lake south of Groom Lake, where nine flying saucers were kept in hangars built into a mountainside. He said his task was to help understand the propulsion of one craft he called the "sport model", which he said used a gravity-based drive fuelled by a stable form of element 115. He said he was hired through the contractor EG&G and paid by the Navy.[1]
Assessment of the claims
Lazar has said he holds master's degrees from MIT and Caltech, but neither institution has any record of him. In a 1993 interview he could not name classmates or professors there; the one instructor he named, Duxler, was found to have taught him a course at Pierce College. In 1990 he told authorities he held a degree from "Pacifica University", an unaccredited diploma mill. EG&G also reported no record of his employment.[1] Researcher Stanton Friedman, who believed in crashed saucers, argued that Lazar's education claims were not credible, and skeptics including Donald Prothero and Benjamin Radford concluded that his background had been invented.[1][5]
Element 115 was first synthesised in 2003 and named moscovium. Its isotopes proved extremely unstable, decaying within fractions of a second, unlike the stable fuel Lazar described.[1][6]
Legal problems
In 1990 Lazar was charged in connection with a Las Vegas brothel operation and pleaded guilty to felony pandering; he was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and ordered into counselling. His chemical supply company, United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, was raided in 2003, and in 2007 it pleaded guilty to selling components used to make illegal fireworks across state lines; it was fined $7,500, while charges were not brought against Lazar personally.[1][7] In 2019 FBI agents and police searched the business as part of a murder investigation into a customer; Lazar was not a suspect.[1][8]
Later attention
Interest revived with Jeremy Corbell's documentary Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers (2018) and a 2019 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. Lazar published Dreamland: An Autobiography the same year.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
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- John Lear's ParaNet statement (1987) (29 December 1987) — Pilot John Lear claims the government has worked with gray aliens since the 1960s.
- Bob Lazar goes public (15 May 1989) — Bob Lazar goes public, claiming he worked on alien craft at S-4 near Area 51.
- Vallée on the disinformation campaign (1989) (17 September 1989) — Vallée writes there is a large disinformation campaign around UAP.
- NRO Blue Fire document (28 July 1991) — An alleged NRO document warns of UFO-group protests near Area 51.
- Dan Burisch and J-Rod (2008) — Dan Burisch claims he studied an extraterrestrial being at the S-4 facility.
- Alexander on Edward Teller (15 February 2011) — Col. John Alexander says physicist Edward Teller would be among the few who knew the truth.
- George Knapp's four legacy programs (19 December 2022) — George Knapp says he knows of at least four 'legacy' UAP programs.
- Alfred O'Donnell's Area 51 saucer story (28 February 2023) — George Knapp says a former Area 51 contractor manager told him of a recovered saucer.
References
- Bob Lazar — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Unusually Fanatical Observers", Los Angeles Times (1993) · latimes.com · archived copy
- "UFOs, the Pentagon, and the enigma of Bob Lazar", Nevada Current (1 Jun 2021) · nevadacurrent.com · archived copy
- George Knapp, "Lazar describes alien technology housed at secret S-4 base in Nevada", KLAS-TV · youtube.com · archived copy
- Benjamin Radford, "Area 51: Secrets, Yes; Aliens, No", Live Science (2012) · livescience.com · archived copy
- Moscovium — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "New Mexico Company Fined, Ordered To Stop Selling Illegal Fireworks Components", U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (2007) · cpsc.gov · archived copy
- Tim McMillan, "Bob Lazar Says the FBI Raided Him to Seize Area 51's Alien Fuel. The Truth Is Weirder", Vice (2019) · vice.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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