John Lear

John Olsen Lear (December 3, 1942 – March 29, 2022) was an American aviator and UFO conspiracy theorist. A son of Learjet magnate Bill Lear, Lear set multiple records, later flying cargo planes for the CIA during the Vietnam era. In the 1980s, he began speaking of alien collusion with secret governmental forces, and in the second half of the decade, Lear was "probably the most influential source" of UFO conspiracies.

Early life John Olsen Lear was born on December 3, 1942, to industrialist and future Learjet founder Bill Lear and his wife Moya Marie Olsen Lear. He was named after his maternal grandfather, famous comedian John Olsen. His second and third birthday parties were covered in the "Society" page of an Ohio paper.

Lear graduated from the Institut Le Rosey boarding school in Switzerland and attended Wichita State University.

Aviator career In 1956, Lear flew his first flight at age 14. His first solo flight was at 16, and in 1960, Lear was hired as a pilot and public relationship representative by his father's company. In 1962, Lear crashed a biplane during stunt flying at his boarding school; he underwent an emergency tracheotomy, a five-hour surgery, and a long convalescence.

Between May 23 and 26, 1966, Lear and a crewmate flew a record-breaking flight around the world in a LearJet that covered 22,000 miles in 50 hours and 39 minutes. In August 1966, Lear was featured in the Wichita Press after he piloted a LearJet carrying the rock band The Byrds and the trip inspired them to write a song about the plane. The track, titled "2-4-2 Foxtrot (The Lear Jet Song)", samples Lear's voice as he speaks over the radio.

Lear flew planes for the CIA between 1967 and 1983.

In 1980, Lear was covered in local press when he lost a billing dispute with his natural gas provider. That November, Lear ran for Nevada State Senate, earning the endorsement of a "Coalition for Affordable Energy".

UFO conspiracy theories before Lear Since the 1947 flying disc craze, Americans had reported seeing unidentified objects in the skies, and by 1955, UFO researchers were accusing the US Government of a cover-up. In the 1950s and 60s, many UFO and contactee groups professed belief in Space Brothers, benevolent aliens eager to improve life on Earth. During a 1964 hypnotic regression, Barney Hill became the first person to report recollections of Gray Aliens and Alien Abductions. By 1973, UFO mythology told of a UFO landing at Holloman Air Force Base. By 1978, UFO mythology included a crashed flying saucer near Roswell. In 1980, cattle mutilations near Dulce, New Mexico were linked to UFOs in popular media.

In 1984, ufologist Bill Moore's partner Jaime Shandera received an envelope containing film which, when developed, showed images of eight pages of documents that appeared to be briefing papers describing "Operation Majestic 12", a top-level UFO group with the US Government.

Statement by John Lear

On December 29, 1987, Lear posted a statement to ParaNet, an early bulletin board system dedicated to the paranormal, claiming that the US government has close contacts with extraterrestrials and were secretly "promoting" films like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to influence the public to see extraterrestrials as "space brothers". The document was revised on January 14, again in March, with a final revision dated August 25, 1988, describing a secret government committee, Majestic 12, making a treaty with Gray aliens, only to later realize they've been deceived by the aliens.

The statement claims a UFO coverup has been underway for 40 years. Lear argues that "Germany may have recovered a flying saucer in 1939" and discusses the 1946 American military investigation into the Ghost rockets reported over Sweden. The statement argues that many in the "original group" of insiders committed suicide, most notably James Forrestal. According to the narrative, Truman formed a group of twelve insiders, known as Majestic 12, to investigate the matter. The statement lists three saucer crashes: one near Roswell. another near Aztec, New Mexico and a third near Laredo, Texas. According to the statement, the US government covered a "total, thorough and sweeping cover-up to include the use of 'deadly force'."

The statement references the 1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incident and a 1964 meeting with aliens at Holloman Air Force Base. Lear's statement includes government-sanctioned alien abductions, alien implants, and Alien-Human hybrids. The statement asserts that "some of the nations missing children had been used for secretions and other parts required by the aliens". Lear described UFOs in connect with cattle mutilations and even claims that human mutilations have occurred. Lear talks about Dulce Base and an altercation between aliens and the US military that led to 66 human casualties.

Lear's statement influenced Thomas Allen LeVesque, pen name "Jason Bishop III", who later admitted to fabricating stories about Dulce Base. Mirage Men author Mark Pilkington later described Lear's statement as "a perfect synthesis of the Aquarius and MJ-12 disinformation and the chthonic [subterranean], paranoiac horrors of Paul Bennewitz."

Relationship with Bill Cooper

Lear had been posting "wild conspiracies about secret government relations with aliens" to Paranet. The New Republic argues Lear's theories were "the kind of thing no one took very seriously". That changed in the summer of 1988, when UFO witness Bill Cooper made his first public comments on the ParaNet Bulletin Board System. According to Cooper's first post, in 1966 he was serving aboard the USS Tiru when he and fellow Navy personnel witnessed a metal craft "larger than a football field" repeatedly enter and exit the water. Cooper claimed he was instructed by superiors to never speak about the incident.

Introduction of Bob Lazar and Area 51 In March 1989, Lear journeyed to the outskirts of "Area 51". Lear introduced journalist George Knapp to UFO whistle-blower Bob Lazar and his tales of Area 51.

Lazar's claims were widely discredited. His supposed employment at a Nellis Air Force Base subsidiary has also been discredited by skeptics, as well as by the United States Air Force.

Role in 1989 symposium

In 1989, Lear served as State Director for The Mutual UFO Network, hosting their 1989 annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 1, 1989. The symposium was titled: "The UFO Cover-Up: A Government Conspiracy?" Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty was also involved, said Moore, though Moore thought Doty was "simply a pawn in a much larger game, as was I." Once he finished the speech, Moore immediately left the hotel and Las Vegas that same night.

Moore's claims sent shock waves through the small, tight-knit UFO community, which remains divided as to the reliability of his assertions.

Legacy Lear remained a prominent voice in the UFO conspiracy theory community until his death. Lear made multiple appearances on TV shows, including Ancient Aliens, America's Book of Secrets, Brad Meltzer's Decoded, and The Unexplained Files. From 2003 to 2015, Lear was a regular guest on Coast to Coast AM.

Lear's claims left a lasting influence on the UFO movement—one author observed "in the early years [UFO writers] did not, by and large, embrace strong political positions. Cooper and Lear were the tip of a spear asserting that the number one thing we had to fear was not little green men, but the government that colluded with them, appropriating their technology against us."

Personal life and death Lear's first wife was Marcelle Tagand Lear, who later divorced him and married actor Adam West.

In 1970, Lear married Marilee Higginbotham, owner of a California fashion modelling agency, at a ceremony in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.

Lear died on March 29, 2022, at the age of 79.