The complete sample of 1 Jansky BL Lacertae objects. I - Summary properties

The first well-defined, homogeneous radio sample of 34 BL Lac objects selected from a large-area survey of sources brighter than 1 Jy at 5 GHz is presented. Extensive optical spectroscopy reveals weak emission lines in roughly 3/4 of the 34 BL Lac objects in the sample. Optical imaging reveals that the nearby BL Lac objects are not stellar, and that the surface brightness distribution of the surrounding fuzz is consistent with the host galaxies being bright ellipticals. The results suggest that gravitational lensing may affect three of the 17 high-redshift BL Lac objects in the sample. The observations do not support a microlensing scenario for the low-redshift objects.