As a teenage freelance researcher, he read the monthly
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. At one point, he read how US
Federal Bureau of Investigation director
J. Edgar Hoover contradicted a
John Birch Society supporter’s letter regarding the
Communist Party USA. Hostile responses led to a lifelong interest in
right-wing conspiracy theories. For his day job, Lazar worked in the music industry as
record promoter,
disc jockey, and record store owner in
San Francisco. He helped promote "
Born to Be Alive" by
Patrick Hernandez in 1979. Later, he worked more than two decades for the State of California's Board of Registered Nursing, Department of Motor Vehicles, and Office of the
Secretary of State of California. Lazar received mention in
Billboard on June 11, 1977, for his music store "Disco Central" and its unique disco collection in the San Francisco Bay area. {{cite magazine For his night job and over his lifetime, Lazar filed more than 9,000
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. He amassed a "600,000-page online and paper library — stored at his home and in a warehouse." The Center for Right Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, received a grant from the
Southern Poverty Law Center to digitize some files, while Lazar crowdsourced for funding himself. Less than a year before his death, Lazar wrote to the
Las Vegas Sun regarding the FBI and the John Birch Society: {{smalldiv|1=In response to the Nov. 24 editorial, "Right-wing extremism has changed its name but not its goals or tactics": Even J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI recognized the danger represented by groups like the John Birch Society. In a November 1964 press conference, Hoover declared: "Personally, I have little respect for the head of the John Birch Society since he linked the names of former President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the late
John Foster Dulles, and former CIA Director
Allen Dulles with communism." The official position of the FBI on the society was expressed in two memos circulated among senior FBI employees: • "The supporters of this organization and those influenced by the vicious propaganda it has been putting out are typical of the fanatics who have been attempting lately to disparage and discredit Bureau speakers who have been giving audiences a true, factual picture concerning the nature of the threat which communist activities in this country represent." • "The John Birch Society is an extremist organization which was founded by
Robert Welch in Indianapolis, Ind., in December 1958. … We certainly should not allow ourselves to be placed in a position where an organization of the character of the JBS can use statements attributed to the Bureau or to the Director to support its position in this or any other matter. This organization would not hesitate to twist any statement by the Bureau to confirm with its extremist position." {{cite news ==Death==