---
title: "George Knapp"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "George Knapp"
aliases: ["George Knapp"]
first_seen: "2026-10-28T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Jay Stratton","James Lacatski","Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)","fringe-science defense funding"]
seek_code_commit: "d40ee39"
---


Long-running investigative reporter for 8 News Now/KLAS-TV (Las Vegas) and the Mystery Wire franchise, covering UFO/UAP and defense-funding stories since the 1980s, and co-author (with James Lacatski and Colm Kelleher) of a nonfiction book series on AAWSAP's history.

Matters to this vault as the recurring named-journalist source for the Jay Stratton founder-credit question: an 8 News Now piece attributed to Knapp's reporting (approx. 2022/2023) and a February 2026 8 News Now/Mystery Wire report he co-bylined with John Forest both independently decline to credit Stratton as AAWSAP's founder, in each case naming James Lacatski as the figure who actually proposed, designed, and managed the program. Two independently-dated pieces from the same reporter converging on the same "not Stratton" framing is more corroboration than any single Tier 3 source would carry alone — worth weighing for sources.md's trusted-writers list if this recurrence continues.

## References
- [[claim-knapp-reporting-stratton-consulted-aawsap-conflicts-with-memoir-founder-claim]]
- [[claim-2026-klas-report-credits-lacatski-alone-with-proposing-designing-managing-aawsap]]