The Nation - News from April 29, 1988

Polygamist Addam Swapp confessed to bombing a Mormon chapel but told a federal court jury in Salt Lake City that he took care not to injure anyone and denied allegations he attempted to kill lawmen. “I had watched this chapel beforehand,” to make sure no one was in the building at night, Swapp testified. Swapp and Vickie Singer, mother of his two wives, are charged with the Jan. 16 bombing at the chapel near their small farm. Singer, 45; her son, John Timothy Singer, 21; Swapp, 27, and Swapp’s brother, Jonathan, 19, also are charged with attempted murder of federal officers during a 13-day standoff that followed the bombing. Swapp denied the attempted murder charge. Swapp was wounded and a state corrections officer was killed in a Jan. 28 exchange of gunfire that ended the standoff.