It’s not every day that someone invites you to examine a fantastically advanced vehicle designed and built on another world. But Lazar was hardly your average guy, and he embraced the challenge eagerly. And it wasn’t just one such craft that Lazar knew of, but nine. Whether they were obtained as a result of malfunctions, crashes, or generous donations from the aliens themselves, Lazar never did find out. But regardless of how they got there, they were there, laid out before him in the secret hangars of S-4; a veritable armada of flying saucers of the precise type that the U.S. government had for decades officially assured the general public were merely the stuff of fantasy, hoaxes, and misidentification.
Lazar’s time at S-4, destined to be brief, was twofold: Part of it involved him digesting numerous briefing papers on the nature and history of the aliens’ mission on Earth. The bulk of his job, however, was focused on trying to understand and ultimately replicate the power source of the amazing craft — which was reportedly a super-heavy element not found on Earth called Element 115. The ships themselves were strange: All utterly smooth to the touch and circular in shape, they completely lacked nuts, bolts, and rivets, and looked as if they had been extracted right out of molds. They were compact in size, split-level, and did not exactly make for comfortable physical navigation — that is, unless you were a 3-foot-tall alien, as the intelligences behind the craft were reputed to be. From the briefing papers Lazar learned that the project indeed had more than alien craft in its possession: there were extraterrestrial bodies that had been secretly autopsied too. Furthermore, there had been violent, fatal altercations at Area 51 between living alien entities and U.S. military personnel at the base. The briefs led Lazar to believe that the human race was the result of some sort of alien-initiated genetic tinkering in our ancient past, and, perhaps most ominous of all, E.T. seemed to have an interest in the nature of the human soul.
The biggest problem for the surprisingly small body of personnel assigned to the program — maybe 20 at most — was that the successful duplication of Element 115 on our world was simply not feasible given the level of scientific knowledge at the time. As a result, much of the investigation was trial and error, undertaken by personnel who understood the implications of what they were dealing with, but were not necessarily sure how to deal with it. Significant advances were few and far between. Try to imagine a Neanderthal kicking the back tires of a shiny new Corvette and grunting the caveman equivalent of “Hmmm.” That, basically, was the situation Lazar found himself in at S-4. Nevertheless, a few tentative test flights of a couple of the craft were attempted at a very restricted level in front of the hangars, so, clearly, at least some degree of headway had been made.
Bob Spills the Beans
Lazar asserted that he continued working at the base until the early months of 1989, around which time a couple of critical things occurred that ultimately led to the termination of his employment — and perhaps almost to the termination of his life. Despite all the warnings, threats, and intimidation about not discussing his work with anyone outside of Area 51 and S-4, Lazar chose to do precisely that: He quietly told his wife, Tracey, his good friend, Gene Huff, and UFO researcher John Lear — the son of William Lear, of Lear-Jet fame — of the startling secrets hidden at the base. Bad move.
It was too much to hope that Area 51 security personnel would not find out. Of course they found out. They also learned — as a result of their constant monitoring of Lazar’s home telephone — that while Bob was tinkering with alien spaceships at S-4, Tracey, who was taking flying lessons at the time, was secretly tinkering with her flight instructor. Lazar was duly informed of his wife’s affair, and also that his employers knew all about the revelations he had made to his pals Huff and Lear. It was these two issues that led Area 51 staff to quickly revoke Lazar’s security clearance, amid worries about his psychological state and the attendant security risks. Lazar was summarily kicked out of his job, and slung out of Area 51. Adios, aliens.
Shortly afterward, Dennis Mariani telephoned Lazar and demanded that he return with Mariani to Area 51. Fearful that, having violated his security agreement, his bones might very well end up buried in the Nevada desert if he did so, Lazar flatly refused Mariani’s hostile invite. An irate Mariani slammed down the phone on Lazar. Not long after that, someone shot out one of the back tires of Lazar’s car as he proceeded onto a particular stretch of Vegas highway. Whether this was a failed attempt to kill Lazar or merely a carefully orchestrated means to intimidate him into complete silence remains unclear. But Lazar felt it left him with only one viable option: He had to go public.
In Lazar’s mind, the more visible he became, the less likelihood there was of him disappearing at the hands of government assassins. Thus began the revelations on Las Vegas’s KLAS-TV, followed by endless debate on the veracity of Lazar’s story in various books, magazines, television documentaries, radio-based talk-shows, and — more than 20 years later — all across the Internet.
What Is the Truth?
Essentially, that’s the story. But what are the facts? Are there even any facts in this weird saga? Or is it all a bunch of lies and distortions? The answers to those important questions are all dependent upon whom you care to ask, and how you interpret the available evidence. Many UFO researchers and investigators dismiss Lazar’s revelations with barely a second glance. Nuclear physicist and legendary UFO authority Stanton T. Friedman wrote of Bob’s revelations, “THIS IS PURE BUNK. BUNK. BUNK.”[1] And yes, Friedman did put his statement in all caps! But despite the naysayers, whenever an attempt is made to place Lazar’s assertions firmly in the categories of hoaxing and delusions, something always seems to come along that leaves the hangar-door open — or, at the very least, slightly ajar — and offers a degree of support for Lazar’s sensational story.
Let’s go back to the beginning, to Lazar’s claims that he was offered the job of a lifetime as a result of having approached Dr. Edward Teller. When questioned after the murky matter began to take shape within UFO research circles as well as the mainstream media, Teller did not deny having met Lazar. Nor did Teller deny having referred Lazar to additional sources that may ultimately have led him to Area 51. In fact, Teller actually squirmed, with distinct uneasiness apparent in his voice, manner, and appearance, when he uttered the following words, after being put on the spot by an enterprising television journalist: “I probably met him. I might have said to somebody I met him and I liked him, after I met him, and if I liked him. But I don’t remember him.”[2] Right, Edward, that really clarified matters.