Otto Otepka: Were RFK and Oswald practically buddies?

[Lance Payette]

Once again, despite my other interests, my interest in the JFKA has been piqued by the folks at the Ed Forum. Someone there just cited to this long article from 2007 by the late Joan Mellen: http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/kennedy-assassination/otto-otepka-robert-kennedy-walter-sheridan-and-lee-oswald/. I’ve checked enough Mellen factoids to know her work cannot be trusted. As I recently set forth in another thread, her description of Oswald in jail after his FPCC-related arrest in New Orleans is a complete fantasy.

The subject at the moment is one Otto F. Otepka. During the relevant time period, he was a senior, highly respected official (Deputy Director and Chief of the Division of Evaluations) in the State Department’s Office of Security. He had been with the Farm Credit Administration, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Civil Service Commission dating back to the FDR administration, and his area of expertise was evaluating others’ loyalty to the United States.
 
There is no question that, under the JFK and LBJ administrations, poor Otepka was harassed, demoted, humiliated, prosecuted and forced into retirement. The question is, “Why?”

As part of Otepka’s job, he undertook a study of defectors to Soviet Bloc countries and did indeed take an interest in Oswald. I will address this below, and you will see that there is no great mystery.

In the hands of Mellen and the folks at the Ed Forum, however, Otepka was harassed, demoted, etc., because RFK was very aware of Oswald long before the assassination and had in fact been using him in RFK’s assorted anti-Castro activities. RFK had also tracked Oswald’s movements in New Orleans in the summer of 1963, before the JFKA. RFK sabotaged Garrison’s investigation because he feared Garrison would discover and reveal this long association with Oswald.

To quote from Mellen’s article:

What Otepka did not know at the time, information that is only emerging now, more than four decades later, is Bobby Kennedy’s extraordinary interest in Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of his brother. … [D]uring the summer of 1963 Bobby’s employees knew about Oswald, knew even that he worked for the New Orleans field office of the FBI, …. The many connections between Robert Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald help to clarify that question that had so plagued Jim Garrison: why did Bobby Kennedy send Walter Sheridan to New Orleans to destroy, discredit and undercut his investigation? … In retrospect, it becomes apparent that Bobby was frantic that no one discover that he had involved Oswald in his own operations against Fidel Castro.

Wow! To me, and perhaps to you, this sounds like typical conspiracy nutcase hyperbole, exactly the sort of incredible stuff that is stated as fact but simply can’t be verified or trusted. However, in 2006 Mellen interviewed the then 91-year-old Otepka and reported, “Mr. Otepka had no doubt that Sheridan’s role in his destruction was connected to some problem that Robert Kennedy had with Oswald.” (She does not quote Otepka directly or indicate that the interview was taped.)

When one reviews more reliable sources regarding Otepka’s ordeal, however, a very different and consistent picture emerges. Otepka did indeed butt heads – big-time – with the JFK and LBJ administrations, but it had nothing to do with Oswald.

Otepka was described, even by State Department colleagues, as McCarthy-esque, a hardnosed, by-the-book patriot who was not going to approve a security clearance for anyone who had not been thoroughly vetted and emerged squeaky clean. The JFK administration was, to put it mildly, considerably more relaxed about such matters. They wanted their appointments approved now, and the hell with fussy characters like Otepka. RFK did indeed become enraged with Otepka over a particular appointment (Walt Rostow) way back in 1960. Otepka eventually leaked damaging information to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. The predictable result was harassment, demotion, etc. He was ultimately prosecuted and convicted, although he retained his employment in a demeaning, do-nothing job.

Otepka’s plight was highlighted in the August 1965 edition of Reader’s Digest (of all places) in an article aptly entitled “The Ordeal of Otto Otepka,” https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040145-5.pdf. This was while Otepka was still with the State Department. The co-author of that piece, William J. Gill, published a book by the same title in 1969.

A thorough review of the Otepka case, in greater and surely more accurate detail than the Mellen account, appears in a chapter of a State Department publication entitled History of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the United States Department of State. The part about Otepka is in Chapter 5, “Spies, Leaks, Bugs and Diplomats: Diplomatic Security in the 1960s,” https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/176701.pdf. The section on Otepka begins on page 170 under the subheading “Black Eye: The Case of Otto Otepka,” and is by no means complimentary to the State Department’s handling of his case. The only positive spin is that the shameful way poor Opteka was treated did lead to needed reforms.

The Otepka case is also examined in scholarly, peer-reviewed articles such as Eric Paul Rooda, “McCarthyite in Camelot: The ‘Loss’ of Cuba, Homophobia, and the Otto Otepka Scandal in the Kennedy State Department,” Diplomatic History, Volume 31, Issue 4, September 2007, pp. 723–754.

Guess what? None of these materials suggests Otepka’s interest in Oswald was a factor in his ordeal. Otepka was harassed, demoted, etc., because his inflexible notions of internal security were very different from those of the JFK and LBJ administrations. (In a weird finale, according to the State Department publication, “In 1970 President Richard M. Nixon appointed Otepka to the Subversive Activities Control Board, an independent governmental body that heard cases against subversive organizations and individuals. The board heard only a few cases, and in June 1972, Otepka retired.” He then moved to Florida and died in 2010 at age 94. https://www.fullermetz.com/obituaries/Otto-Otepka?obId=35090614.)

Otepka had been interested in the Oswald case because the circumstances of his defection and return did raise red flags in Otepka's McCarthy-esque mind. He was extremely concerned about Communist infiltration of the government, and the Oswald case raised concerns in his mind about possible KGB infiltration. No one outside of Conspiracy Land has suggested this played any role in his harassment, demotion, etc. He was simply far more McCarthy-esque in the performance of his job than the JFK administration was willing to tolerate with its 1000+ appointees. (He did say later in life that he really didn’t know whether Oswald was a genuine defector – but his concern was not that the CIA might be sponsoring false defectors, which would not have bothered him in the slightest; his concern was possible KGB infiltration.)

After completing my own little pseudo-research as set forth above, I discovered that Fred Litwin has a piece on Otepka that also includes a memorandum summarizing a 1978 interview of him by the HSCA as well references to a 1978 interview by Peter Dale Scott: https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/jfk-destiny-betrayed-misleads-on-otto-otepka. There is nothing that would support Mellen’s take on Otepka and RFK.

This was all just an exercise to satisfy my own curiosity in the absence of any golf or football on TV while waiting for my Achilles to heal from surgery. Once again, however, we see the distinction between actual research as reflected in the citations above and conspiracy nutcase “research” as reflected in the work of Mellen and regurgitated ad nauseam by the CT community. Mellen weaves a conspiracy narrative by connecting dots that never existed in the first place - and the CT community doesn't seem to care that the dots are imaginary.

[Tom Graves]

Once again, despite my other interests, my interest in the JFKA has been piqued by the folks at the Ed Forum. Someone there just cited to this long article from 2007 by the late Joan Mellen: http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/kennedy-assassination/otto-otepka-robert-kennedy-walter-sheridan-and-lee-oswald/. I’ve checked enough Mellen factoids to know her work cannot be trusted. As I recently set forth in another thread, her description of Oswald in jail after his FPCC-related arrest in New Orleans is a complete fantasy.

The subject at the moment is one Otto F. Otepka. During the relevant time period, he was a senior, highly respected official (Deputy Director and Chief of the Division of Evaluations) in the State Department’s Office of Security. He had been with the Farm Credit Administration, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Civil Service Commission dating back to the FDR administration, and his area of expertise was evaluating others’ loyalty to the United States.
 
There is no question that, under the JFK and LBJ administrations, poor Otepka was harassed, demoted, humiliated, prosecuted and forced into retirement. The question is, “Why?”

As part of Otepka’s job, he undertook a study of defectors to Soviet Bloc countries and did indeed take an interest in Oswald. I will address this below, and you will see that there is no great mystery.

In the hands of Mellen and the folks at the Ed Forum, however, Otepka was harassed, demoted, etc., because RFK was very aware of Oswald long before the assassination and had in fact been using him in RFK’s assorted anti-Castro activities. RFK had also tracked Oswald’s movements in New Orleans in the summer of 1963, before the JFKA. RFK sabotaged Garrison’s investigation because he feared Garrison would discover and reveal this long association with Oswald.

To quote from Mellen’s article:

What Otepka did not know at the time, information that is only emerging now, more than four decades later, is Bobby Kennedy’s extraordinary interest in Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of his brother. … [D]uring the summer of 1963 Bobby’s employees knew about Oswald, knew even that he worked for the New Orleans field office of the FBI, …. The many connections between Robert Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald help to clarify that question that had so plagued Jim Garrison: why did Bobby Kennedy send Walter Sheridan to New Orleans to destroy, discredit and undercut his investigation? … In retrospect, it becomes apparent that Bobby was frantic that no one discover that he had involved Oswald in his own operations against Fidel Castro.

Wow! To me, and perhaps to you, this sounds like typical conspiracy nutcase hyperbole, exactly the sort of incredible stuff that is stated as fact but simply can’t be verified or trusted. However, in 2006 Mellen interviewed the then 91-year-old Otepka and reported, “Mr. Otepka had no doubt that Sheridan’s role in his destruction was connected to some problem that Robert Kennedy had with Oswald.” (She does not quote Otepka directly or indicate that the interview was taped.)

When one reviews more reliable sources regarding Otepka’s ordeal, however, a very different and consistent picture emerges. Otepka did indeed butt heads – big-time – with the JFK and LBJ administrations, but it had nothing to do with Oswald.

Otepka was described, even by State Department colleagues, as McCarthy-esque, a hardnosed, by-the-book patriot who was not going to approve a security clearance for anyone who had not been thoroughly vetted and emerged squeaky clean. The JFK administration was, to put it mildly, considerably more relaxed about such matters. They wanted their appointments approved now, and the hell with fussy characters like Otepka. RFK did indeed become enraged with Otepka over a particular appointment (Walt Rostow) way back in 1960. Otepka eventually leaked damaging information to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. The predictable result was harassment, demotion, etc. He was ultimately prosecuted and convicted, although he retained his employment in a demeaning, do-nothing job.

Otepka’s plight was highlighted in the August 1965 edition of Reader’s Digest (of all places) in an article aptly entitled “The Ordeal of Otto Otepka,” https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040145-5.pdf. This was while Otepka was still with the State Department. The co-author of that piece, William J. Gill, published a book by the same title in 1969.

A thorough review of the Otepka case, in greater and surely more accurate detail than the Mellen account, appears in a chapter of a State Department publication entitled History of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the United States Department of State. The part about Otepka is in Chapter 5, “Spies, Leaks, Bugs and Diplomats: Diplomatic Security in the 1960s,” https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/176701.pdf. The section on Otepka begins on page 170 under the subheading “Black Eye: The Case of Otto Otepka,” and is by no means complimentary to the State Department’s handling of his case. The only positive spin is that the shameful way poor Opteka was treated did lead to needed reforms.

The Otepka case is also examined in scholarly, peer-reviewed articles such as Eric Paul Rooda, “McCarthyite in Camelot: The ‘Loss’ of Cuba, Homophobia, and the Otto Otepka Scandal in the Kennedy State Department,” Diplomatic History, Volume 31, Issue 4, September 2007, pp. 723–754.

Guess what? None of these materials suggests Otepka’s interest in Oswald was a factor in his ordeal. Otepka was harassed, demoted, etc., because his inflexible notions of internal security were very different from those of the JFK and LBJ administrations. (In a weird finale, according to the State Department publication, “In 1970 President Richard M. Nixon appointed Otepka to the Subversive Activities Control Board, an independent governmental body that heard cases against subversive organizations and individuals. The board heard only a few cases, and in June 1972, Otepka retired.” He then moved to Florida and died in 2010 at age 94. https://www.fullermetz.com/obituaries/Otto-Otepka?obId=35090614.)

Otepka had been interested in the Oswald case because the circumstances of his defection and return did raise red flags in Otepka's McCarthy-esque mind. He was extremely concerned about Communist infiltration of the government, and the Oswald case raised concerns in his mind about possible KGB infiltration. No one outside of Conspiracy Land has suggested this played any role in his harassment, demotion, etc. He was simply far more McCarthy-esque in the performance of his job than the JFK administration was willing to tolerate with its 1000+ appointees. (He did say later in life that he really didn’t know whether Oswald was a genuine defector – but his concern was not that the CIA might be sponsoring false defectors, which would not have bothered him in the slightest; his concern was possible KGB infiltration.)

After completing my own little pseudo-research as set forth above, I discovered that Fred Litwin has a piece on Otepka that also includes a memorandum summarizing a 1978 interview of him by the HSCA as well references to a 1978 interview by Peter Dale Scott: https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/jfk-destiny-betrayed-misleads-on-otto-otepka. There is nothing that would support Mellen’s take on Otepka and RFK.

This was all just an exercise to satisfy my own curiosity in the absence of any golf or football on TV while waiting for my Achilles to heal from surgery. Once again, however, we see the distinction between actual research as reflected in the citations above and conspiracy nutcase “research” as reflected in the work of Mellen and regurgitated ad nauseam by the CT community. Mellen weaves a conspiracy narrative by connecting dots that never existed in the first place - and the CT community doesn't seem to care that the dots are imaginary.

Joan Mellen, whose far-left ex-husband, Ralph Schoenman (Bertrand Russell's London secretary), sent to over-ambitious, scandal-plagued, and revengeful New Orleans DA Jim Garrison a translated-into-English French version of a Communist-owned Italian newspaper's anti-CIA / anti-Clay Shaw article that it had published three days after Garrison had arrested Shaw on suspicion of masterminding the homosexual "thrill-kill" assassination of JFK, which article motivated Garrison to change his theory against Shaw to "He organized it for the evil, evil CIA!"?

Joan Mellen, who twisted CIA historian Kenneth McDonald's mistakenly writing in 1992, "Shaw was a highly paid CIA contract source until 1956" (he should have written "Shaw was a highly valued CIA contact source until 1956") into "Shaw was a highly paid CIA contract agent"?

That Joan Mellen?

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/mlk/releases/2025/0721/00933059_memo_survey_of_cias_recor_104-10331-10001.pdf