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Bob Lazar - The Lazar Synopsis

by Gene Huff

[As posted to alt.conspiracy.area51, 12 Mar 1995.]

This is a synopsis, or maybe booklet, of Bob Lazar's story which is being offered as a ground zero for future dialogue. After coming to the internet a short time ago, I noticed that people's knowledge of Bob's story varied widely. This is an effort to increase that knowledge base so people who either support or dismiss Bob's story do it for the right reasons. Bob's story is long and complex and in this document I've tried to condense it to a manageable size without omitting relevant points. I'm going to emphasize how things looked from my point of view. I won't elaborate on propulsion systems and things of that sort, so if you want that you can get it on the Lazar Tape and hear if from Bob himself. So here we go...

In the late 1980's I was working as a real estate appraiser in Las Vegas, and still am for that matter. Bob Lazar, known as "Bob, the photo guy" to most Las Vegas appraisers operated the photo lab that serviced many appraisers at that time. Bob and I had met in 1985 and by 1988 we had become friends and began to socialize together. Bob's wife, Tracy, usually did the photo deliveries to our office and, at first, I had talked to her and seen her infinitely more than Bob. Periodically she would talk about when she and Bob lived in Los Alamos, not together, and I just presumed that he ran a photo lab down there. Bob and Tracy met when Tracy was hired to work at a business run buy Bob's first wife, Carol. Tracy's dad, Don Merck, worked at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL from here on out) and that's how she happened to be living there. Don worked on the conventional charge that implodes and compresses the nuke material to make an atomic bomb explode.

After Bob and I started socializing, I began to notice that he knew a lot about many things. I knew that he was somewhat of an egghead because, when he would do a rare photo delivery, he would drive a Honda CRX in which he had installed a jet engine. But his knowledge base extended far beyond that. There was little he didn't know about jet engines, combution engines, electronics, computer hardware and software, etc. He even made some nitro- glycerin one day while we sat talking at the kitchen table. We later took it out to the desert and blew it up, that's how I knew it was, indeed, a high energy explosive. Eventually, I asked him why he knew all of this stuff. He said, "I've got degrees in physics and electronic technology". I said, "Well, what's the difference between you and a scientist?" He said, " I AM a scientist". I said, "Why didn't you tell me?" He said, "What did you want me to do, say hey man, I'm a scientist"? I said, "Yeah, I would have". He just shook his head and walked away. I later found out that he had worked at the Meson Physics facility at LANL.

All this time, I just thought he was some guy who ran a photo lab and just happened to have an interest in jet engines. He also had, and still has, a rail type dragster with a jet engine from one of the military's first supersonic fighters. Anyway, in time, I met: Bob's dad, Al; his mother, Phyllis; Tracy's dad Don; Joe Vaninetti, an old friend from Los Alamos. Joe's last job at LANL was melting down plutonium. He is currently completing his masters in soils analysis (soils science?) up in Utah. You'll hear more about Joe later; Melissa Crey (maybe Cray) Joe's room mate and a physicist at LANL; and Jim Tagliani, and old friend and computer & electronic tech. All of these people seemed to think Bob was a scentist and, to this day, I have no reason to doubt him and numerous reasons to believe him. Jim Tagliani actually worked with Bob at Fairchild Electronics in southern Cal where Bob was the youngest electrical engineer ever to have worked there. This was a couple of years prior to Bob's Los Alamos job.

At this point, in 1988, Bob was bored with the photo lab and had sent out resumes to various government labs to try and get back into another scientific job. Included on that list was Dr. Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb and scientific consultant to the last 5 or 6 presidents. Bob had met Teller in 1982 in Los Alamos when Teller was there lecturing. Coincidentally, at this same time, Bob's picture was on the front page of the Los Alamos Monitor newspaper. A staff writer named Terry England had done an article on Bob and a Honda CRX in which he had installed a jet engine. This wasn't the same jet CRX he had when I first met him. This article ran in the June 27, 1982 edition of that paper and in it they refer to Bob as, and I quote, "Lazar, a physicist at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility". It's difficult to believe that in a town of 10,000 scientists, who all have egos about their credentials, the only local newspaper could refer to Bob as a scientist if he was not one, at least not without any public outrage. Anyway, when Bob arrived early to hear Teller speak, there Teller sat reading the newspaper article about Bob. Bob used this as an avenue to introduce himself and they had a short chat about jets, etc. Bob later heard Teller's speech and that was that. So in 1988 when Bob sent out all of these resumes, he thought, why not take a shot?

It had been a while since he sent out these resumes and one day I dropped by his house and asked him if he had heard any news. He said, "As a matter of fact, yeah, Edward Teller called me". I said, "Who's Edward Teller?". After he explained, I understood the importance of the call. Teller had responded by phone and said that he was no longer active, but currently worked in a chief consultant capacity. However, Teller did give Bob the name of a gentleman to call here in Las Vegas. Bob called this guy and talked to him and a short time later, someone from EG&G called Bob to set up an interview. EG&G is a company that has all kinds of high tech interests here at the Nevada Test Site. Bob threw away the piece of paper with the name Teller gave him on it. Remember, at this point in time, nobody knew what Bob was headed for and it's obvious that it would be nice to have that name now.

So Bob went to EG&G for the interview. Bob later told me that he "dazzled" them by having every answer to some pretty complex questions and he was optimistic about getting the job. This was unusual because Bob isn't one to pat himself on the back. However, dazzling them temporarily backfired because they told him he was overqualified for the job and he didn't get it. They then told him not to lose hope because they had something coming up that he might be interested in. Ultimately, they called him back and hired him to work on a propulsion project in an "outer area".

Bob reported to the EG&G building at McCarran airport, which had runway access, where he was met by Dennis Mariani. Mariani was a security man of medium build and heighth, about 35 to 40 years old, blonde hair and a tightly cropped blonde mustache. Mariani had a military look and manner, but he didn't wear a uniform. With Mariani as his escort, Bob was flown out to area 51 at Groom Lake.

At area 51, Bob had to sign a secrecy agreeement and an agreement to waive his constitutional rights, which is illegal but was made possible by an executive order with Ronald Reagan's signature on it. He also had to sign an agreement which allowed them to monitor his phone line. Bob already had "Q" clearance, which is top secret civilian clearance, at Los Alamos but he had never gone through anything like this. The clearance he was now attaining would require perpetual monitoring of his activities and would never simply be attained and forgotten about until the next review date. After some abrupt suggestions that he honor his secrecy agreement and watch his general conduct, he and Mariani boarded a bus with blacked out windows and took a 20 to 30 minute ride down a bumpy dirt/gravel road. They arrived at a base near Papoose dry lake bed know as S4.

S4 was a combination of buildings and hangars built into the side of a mountain. Armed guards were everywhere, and security was oppressive. Bob even got an armed escort when he went to the bathroom. They arranged Bob's I.D. and gave him a physical which included a test for allergic reactions to substances which were not identified for Bob. After this he was placed in a briefing room by himself to read some briefings as part of his indoctrination. As Mariani closed the door to leave Bob alone, Bob saw a poster on the back of the door. It was a "flying saucer" hovering over a dry lake bed and it was captioned, "They're Here". Bob opened the top folder on the desk and it contained 8 x 10 glossy photos of 9 different flying saucers, including the one on the poster.

To this day, no one knows why Bob was selected for this project. Bob has a comprehensive knowledge base and is an excellent problem solver, but this may not be uncommon in the scientific community. Maybe the good word from Edward Teller carried a lot of weight. It's even possible that the nod from Teller carried more weight than was originally intended, no one knows.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | --->