Gary Severson

If, as you say, the doors "were probably secured" then it went against Dr. Penn's understanding that "the doors should have been locked because I gave the keys to the SS that morning at 7:30 so they should have been locked when you went through them at 10:30". The night before in Duluth security people told me there was no weak link in security in the campus arena where JFK spoke. 15 hours later in Grand Forks the security was full of holes. 45 years later, when I find Dr. Penn, he asks me after many hours of discussion about the assassination, "do you think i was involved in the plot on 9/25/63". He never expected to be discovered 45 years later. It is true that if the plotters knew the plot was called off by Nagell on 9/20/63 it didn't matter if doors were left open. However one feels about the veracity of the book "Farewell America", it does indicate the the plotters were on site that day in Grand Forks.

In your recent 2019 JFK Conference video you emphasize again & again that visible military/police ground security was the order of the day wherever JFK went to be in a motorcade. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you do this to show that Dealey Plaza was an exception to this MO. IOW, if as you say, ground security was invisible in Grand Forks because rooftops were manned with snipers then why wouldn't the same go for Dallas especially if there was no visible rooftop security coverage?

I will add that the night before JFK was in Grand Forks he was in Duluth overnight. I interviewed security in Duluth. I was told by them that JFK had a corner room overlooking the coast of Lake Superior on the 10th floor of the Duluth Hotel. Security cleared out the 9th & 11th floors for fear of a bomb being planted above & below JFK's room. Your contention that 63 was a pre-terrorist time needs to be qualified I think. I was also told that the Duluth Hotel kitchen was manned with food tasters in case of an attempt to poison JFK.

Good point Vince. I will add that having researched this event since it happened there is more to the story. When in 2008 I interviewed Dr. John Penn, security liaison between the White House & UND, he told me the doors I went through at 10:30 am on 9/25/63 should have been locked because he gave the keys to the SS that morning at 7:30. Now of course the SS may have chosen to leave them open to provide sharpshooter access to the roof. In fact my route through the 4 doors did lead to the catwalk above the arena floor & thus to the roof. I made a mental note of it that day & was familiar with the roof access from my years of hanging out in the arena that I grew up across the street from. Upon further interviews with Dr. Penn he eventually divulged there was a plot afoot that day & did I think he was a part of it. I told him no I didn't at which point he refused to ever discuss it again. His limited hangout was that he forgot to give the UND President (Dr. George Starcher) his security credentials that morning. He said this meant that when he was notified that Starcher was waiting at the entrance to the arena with JFK & wasn't being allowed to escort JFK in from his limo he had to race from one end of arena to the other to get Starcher his credentials. JFK had been driven 2 blocks from his chopper in the OPEN limo with Greer driving. JFK became a stationary target while waiting for the UND President to get his creds. The towers of the adjacent football stadium were 100 yards away with windows to allow a shooter a clear view of a stationary JFK below the stadium windows. None of this would be that relevant unless Nagell hadn't derailed the plot 5 days earlier. If Dr. Penn's part of the plot was to forget to give UND President Starcher his security creds in order to make JFK a stationary target he wouldn't have been told Nagell's actions had in effect cancelled the plot. There's more but I will leave at that for now. The above scenario has been vetted by Dick Russell more than once.

In Grand Forks, N.Dak on Sept. 25 there were sharpshooters on the roof of the arena on the Univ. of N. Dak campus. On Sept. 20 Richard Case Nagell got himself arrested in El Paso on his way to assassinate LHO in Mexico City. Nagell believed JFK was to be assassinated in the last days of Sept 63 & by getting arrested believed he would avoid being associated with the coming assassination. I was there & saw the guns on the roof as I & another 16 old buddy walked right under those guns & proceeded through 4 sets of unguarded doors.. We proceeded to make our way to 2 empty seats in front of JFK's podium. The point being there was roof security but so what when there were entrances totally unguarded.

I am a H.S. teacher in Bloomington, Mn. a Mpls. suburb. I teach Social Studies and do a unit on JFK every year. I continue to work on what R.C. Nagell refers to as the 3rd plot to assassinate JFK in late Sept. of 63. This 3rd plot is the theme of my rearch articles.