On May 24, 1989, in a live interview with investigative reporter George Knapp on KLAS-Las Vegas, Robert "Bob" Lazar took the first steps toward becoming one of the most influential (and controversial) figures in all of UFO lore.

Concealing his identity and using the pseudonym "Dennis," Lazar said that deep within an unconfirmed section of Area 51 called "S4," he'd once worked on recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft for the US government.

Months later, no longer concealing his identity, Lazar claimed the US government was now waging an all out covert war against him. He said it shot out one of his tires and erased all of his educational records from CalTech and MIT. Lazar eventually claimed that, while at Area 51, his job was to reverse-engineer an alien material called "element 115" that he claimed was used to power an alien spacecraft. Lazar has repeatedly hinted that he took a piece of element 115 from Area 51, and that this element is of great interest to the federal government.