The Singer-Swapp Standoff, Part 1: Excommunicated, Armed, and Homeschooling

[00:00:01] On January 18, 1979, John Singer walked down the lane from his family's farmhouse in Marion, Utah to collect his mail. Police officers were waiting for him. Singer was a Mormon father of seven who had spent years fighting the state over his right to homeschool his children. Now there was a warrant for his arrest. Within minutes, Singer had been shot by police. By afternoon, he was dead. And for his family, the fight was far from over.

[00:00:37] Hello and welcome to Postmormon Postmortem's Mormon True Crime, real cases from inside of one of America's strangest cultures. You don't have to be Mormon to follow the story, you just have to understand that Mormon culture always plays a part. I'm your host, Hannah. And I'm Jess. Now this is the first of two episodes on the Mormon True Crime case of The Singer and Swapp families of Marion, Utah.

[00:01:06] And a heads up before we start, this podcast contains mature themes, so listen accordingly. And if you're a paid member on Patreon, you can listen to Part 2 right now. It's already out. For everyone else, Part 2 will be out at the usual place, usual time, next week. And speaking of Patreon, we would like to thank our newest supporters, Julia W., Beth S., and Nikki M.

[00:01:32] And thank you to Candice G., Dory H., and Brad M. We couldn't do without you. We sure could. Part 2 will meet Adam Swapp, who reportedly decided he would marry 14-year-old Heidi Singer after seeing her on television talking about how her father had kept her pure from the world. Adam wanted Heidi for his wife, and possibly her sister too. But first, the story of Heidi's father, John Singer.

[00:01:57] Ogden Kraut, a fellow Mormon fundamentalist and a friend of John's, told this story in Sunstone magazine. On March 29, 1973, John Singer walked into Principal Rex Walker's office at South Summit Elementary School in Kamas, Utah. He was carrying a history textbook his eight-year-old daughter, Suzanne, had brought home. One page showed George Washington, Betsy Ross, and Martin Luther King Jr. as American patriots.

[00:02:26] Singer thought King was a communist agitator who deserved to be assassinated. He objected to King appearing alongside Washington and Ross and to the pictures showing white and black people together. The principal explained that the school used state-approved textbooks. Singer reminded the principal of the Mormon teachings about Cain's descendants and the church's restrictions on black men holding the priesthood.

[00:02:53] Rutz Walker was a Mormon high priest. In fact, he'd been one of the men who'd excommunicated John and his wife Vicki the previous year. When Walker wouldn't budge on the curriculum, Singer went straight to his children's classrooms. He collected Heidi from her third-grade classroom, Suzanne from second grade, and six-year-old Timothy from kindergarten and told them they were going home for good. From now on, they'd be educated at the family farm in Marion.

[00:03:24] Kamass, Utah was a town of about 800 people, roughly 35 miles east of Salt Lake City. Farming, ranching, conservative politics, and Mormonism dominated the valley. Nearby Marion had fewer than 60 families. The Singers lived on two and a half acres near the Ewanter Mountains, reached by a private dirt road that passed John's uncle's, Gus Weller's, a 160-acre farm.

[00:03:51] John and Vicki wanted their children to learn practical skills and become self-sufficient. They believed their children should question teachers, politicians, religious leaders, and the media, with scripture as their final authority. Their approach to education followed each child's interests. Heidi made leather moccasins, studied ute history, and collected arrowheads. Suzanne liked to draw and paint and made dolls out of reused material. Timothy was really into carpentry.

[00:04:21] He built wagons and miniature trains and repaired lawnmower engines. Each child had a garden plot. They would spend their afternoons gardening, caring for animals, preserving food, collecting firewood and building things. The children made huts, teepees, tree houses, and a log cabin, often dismantling their former creations to reuse their materials. On April 12th, two weeks after John removed the children from school, Superintendent Val Edrington visited the farm.

[00:04:50] He invited John and Vicki to meet with the South Summit Board of Education the next day to discuss their plans for the children's education. John told the board his objections to public schooling. In addition to the textbook's representation of racial equality, he also opposed sex education, the theory of evolution, and the school's immoral atmosphere.

[00:05:12] When a board member argued that children needed to learn to deal with people who held different values, John compared children to plants in a garden. He said that just as a gardener protects young plants from weeds, parents should protect their children from harmful influences until they are strong enough to resist them. He believed he and Vicki would answer to God for their children's conduct until they reached adulthood. He cited Doctrine and Covenants, Section 68, Verse 28, quote,

[00:05:43] And they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord, end quote. It wasn't just John who felt this way. Vicki defended the homeschooling too. She admitted that their children might never be outstanding students, but she believed their practical skills would make them better prepared to survive a social or economic collapse. Now Utah law required children between 6 and 18 to attend school.

[00:06:13] Homeschooling was allowed provided parents taught the required subjects for the required hours and got approval from the local school board. Superintendent Edgerton offered the singers an exemption on those terms. District officials would occasionally check the children's progress. The singers had 30 days to respond. They decided that accepting the board's conditions would mean disobeying God.

[00:06:41] John and Vicki relied on Section 98 of the Doctrine and Covenants and its teachings about divine authority as permission to reject what they determined were unjust laws that conflicted with God's commandments. They also accepted the passage's warning that believers might have to sacrifice their lives for their convictions. On June 16, John gave Edgerton a written response.

[00:07:09] He wrote that God had let him know through Scripture and the Holy Spirit that he wasn't required to bow to laws that trampled his liberties and that only slaves would. He ended with, quote, Go to hell, you and your kind, for such unrighteous demands, end quote. John's father, Hans Singer, had joined the Nazi party in 1923.

[00:07:34] And his mother, Charlotte Weller, was also a native German who had converted to Mormonism in Germany in 1914. She immigrated to the US in 1925 with her brother Gus and her two sisters. Charlotte married Hans Singer in 1927 and their first child, John, was born in Brooklyn on January 6, 1931, making him a US citizen. In 1932, Hans took the family back to Germany.

[00:08:00] He'd come to the States to raise money for the Nazi party and he expected Hitler's rise to restore Germany's prosperity. So they settled in Dresden where their second son, Harold, was born. Charlotte opposed Nazism and she and Hans argued ideologically about a lot of things. He hated her Mormon religion and said that his children would never practice it. He insisted that he would rather his sons grow up as Nazis than Mormons.

[00:08:26] By 1940, Hans was working for the Nazi party in Berlin. When he was drafted into the army, he enrolled John and Harold in an elite SS preparatory school. He wanted them thoroughly indoctrinated and away from their mother's religious influence. Both boys joined the Hitler youth when they turned 10. But instead of embracing the school's discipline and military authoritarianism, they rebelled.

[00:08:52] Within 18 months, both had been expelled for defiance. After the war, Charlotte began trying to get her family out of Germany. Because John was an American citizen, he could leave immediately. In 1946, 15-year-old John arrived alone in New York City where he lived with his aunt and uncle, attended high school, learned English, and studied television repair. He became active in the Mormon church and was ordained to the priesthood.

[00:09:22] Charlotte and the younger children arrived in the US in 1949. And the following year, the family moved to Utah. In 1953, John's uncle, Gus Weller, invited him to move to Marion and help him run his 168-acre farm. Charlotte was against the idea. She thought her brother was a religious fanatic who would be a bad influence on her son.

[00:09:44] In 1910, Gus had converted to Mormonism at the same time as Charlotte in their youth after he had survived a serious airplane crash while he was serving in the German Air Force. And after his conversion, he claimed that Jesus Christ had appeared to him and personally given him the priesthood. That's how Gus Weller got it from Jesus Christ. Gus believed that he could heal people through prayer and priesthood blessings. Like nearly every other Mormon priesthood holder.

[00:10:12] And even though Charlotte thought her brother was a fanatic, she also claimed to have witnessed his healings. By the time John arrived in Marion, Gus had attracted a small group of followers who regarded him as a prophet and healer. Eventually, he would be excommunicated for teaching false doctrine. We'll get there. But in the meantime, John was receptive, super receptive to his uncle's teachings. They studied the scriptures together every evening.

[00:10:36] He moved into the Weller home, he worked on the farm, and he still kept up the television repair that he had learned as a teenager. In 1957, Gus transferred two and a half acres to John in what looks like compensation for his years of farm labor. The agreement was understood by his mom, Charlotte, and other family members to be sacred, with John's ownership extending into eternity. And that matters because the property transfer is eventually going to become the subject of a bitter family dispute, but put a pin in that.

[00:11:05] For now, John fenced the land and began building a log cabin on it using timber that he hauled in from the surrounding mountains. By 1961, John Singer was 30. He'd built a life for himself in which he could provide almost everything he wanted. Just missing one thing. A wife. In the summer of 1961, Vicki Lemon had just graduated from South Summit High School in Kamas.

[00:11:32] She was a talented dancer, a former homecoming queen, and had started a baton twirling drill team called the Twirlerettes. She planned to study ballet at the University of Utah that fall and was teaching tap dancing to save money. That summer, she cut her long blonde hair. Afterward, she stopped in at the only drug store in Kamas where John Singer was eating at the lunch counter. He told her she'd ruined her looks by cutting off her beautiful hair.

[00:12:01] Vicki was surprised by his comment and his German accent. John laughed and introduced himself. Despite the 12-year age difference, she agreed to go see a movie with him. And her parents weren't happy about that date. John had a reputation around town. People knew he'd belonged to the Hitler Youth and followed Gus Weller's unusual religious teachings. There were even rumors that he believed in polygamy.

[00:12:28] Apparently, even people who didn't believe the rumors still often found John irritating. He talked on and on while he was fixing televisions in customers' homes. His loud laughter, jokes, and nonstop conversation would wear people out who just wanted their TVs fixed. Many respected his repair skills but disliked him personally. Vicki knew her parents were embarrassed by her relationship with John.

[00:12:57] That fall, Vicki went to the University of Utah. She got discouraged with her ballet program and switched to elementary education. And then grew increasingly interested in studying Mormon scriptures under John's influence. After 18 months, she left college and returned to Kamas. Her parents partially blamed John for what they saw as her lack of ambition. Now, Vicki was fascinated by the self-sufficient life that John had built for himself in Marion.

[00:13:24] She was particularly interested in his belief that prayer and priesthood blessings could heal illnesses without medical treatment. One evening, while they were reading a book about herbal medicine of all things at John's cabin, Vicki experienced what she described as a feeling of extraordinary peace. And she told John it felt heavenly. Afterwards, she found herself thinking about him more and more. Her parents wanted her to marry another guy that she'd been seeing, but Vicki thought he was immature.

[00:13:52] She was falling in love with John Singer, the 32-year-old former Hitler Youth. She prayed for guidance and woke up convinced that she should marry him. Coincidentally, John had spent the previous evening himself praying about whether he should marry Vicki. He asked God to have her accept his proposal without hesitation if the marriage was right. So he said if she hesitates even a little bit, then it'll be his indication that it's not to be.

[00:14:21] But she accepted with no hesitation. When Vicki telephoned her parents, who were vacationing in Blackfoot, Idaho, to announce her engagement, they assumed she was marrying Bill. They were thrilled! Until she told them, no, no, it's John Singer who I'm marrying. Her father, Grant Lemon, ordered Vicki's brother Carlo to put her on a bus to Blackfoot. Instead, Vicki slipped out of her parents' house that night and stayed with her friend Enid.

[00:14:50] The next morning, her brother and aunt tried to persuade her to leave for Blackfoot. Upset by the pressure, Vicki asked Zena to drive her to Gus Weller's farm, hoping he'd give her a priesthood blessing. They'd barely arrived when three more cars pulled up. Vicki's grandmother grabbed her arm and accused her of being mentally ill. Her aunt tried to convince her to come home.

[00:15:13] And when Gus's son, Jared, came out from the house, Vicki's step-grandfather pulled a knife on him. Jared told him to put it away unless he intended to use it. Eventually, Vicki agreed to go with her aunt. She was getting into the car when John Singer arrived and ordered her out. Gus had overheard the family discussing taking Vicki to a mental hospital in Provo and had called John.

[00:15:39] John and Gus helped Vicki inside and John ordered all of her relatives off the property. Almost immediately after she was inside, Vicki's mother telephoned from Idaho and threatened to kill herself by stepping in front of a train if Vicki married John. Vicki cried but would not change her mind. When she told John and Gus about the threat, both men laughed, making her even more upset. John and Vicki decided to get married immediately.

[00:16:09] John drove her to Salt Lake City and left her with Gus's daughter, Miriam Jepsen. He went back to marry in that evening where he discovered the sheriff was looking for him. Someone had reported that he had kidnapped Vicki. So now he's got kidnapping charges against him. Her father and uncle arrived at John's cabin carrying guns. And then around 50 KMAS residents eventually joined them, some armed. A friend convinced them that John was gone and wouldn't be returning. So the crowd dispersed.

[00:16:39] John collected Vicki in Salt Lake City and they drove through the night to Elko, Nevada, where they planned to get married. But when they arrived at the courthouse, Vicki realized she'd left her ID behind in Salt Lake City and they had to drive all the way back. On September 9th, 1963, John and Vicki were finally married before a justice of the peace in Elko. And they subsequently had their marriage sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.

[00:17:01] Before going back to marry in, John arranged for a lawyer to help get those kidnapping accusations and the associated arrest warrant withdrawn. As they approached Kamas Valley, they expected to be met by an angry mob, basically. But a violent storm swept through, bringing thunder and lightning and heavy rain and power outages. That storm kept everybody inside. Nobody confronted them when they arrived home.

[00:17:30] And John and Vicki took that as a sign that God intended to intervene and protect them. Despite the circumstances of their wedding, John and Vicki were happy during the first years of marriage. They got chickens, built a coop, expanded the garden and started storing potatoes, onions, carrots, beets and cabbage in the root cellar. John taught Vicki to bake bread and she made raspberry jam.

[00:17:56] John remembered the food shortages in Germany after the Second World War. Combined with Mormon teachings about preparing for disasters and the events preceding Christ's return, those experiences strengthened his determination to provide for his family without outside help. Their marriage remained unpopular in Kamas. People stared at them in stores and at church dances. Some insisted John had hypnotized Vicki.

[00:18:25] One cousin wondered what would happen when she came out of her trance. At home, John and Vicki spent their evenings studying Mormon scripture, often with Gus Weller. Vicki began wearing dresses resembling those worn by 19th century Mormon women. And they had the long sleeves, the high necklines, the ankle length skirts, the whole shebang.

[00:18:54] She was the OG trad wife. The OG trad wife, for sure. They accepted early Mormon teachings about prophecy, revelation and divine healing. They believed faithful people could receive instructions directly from God through dreams, visions, angels and personal inspiration, just like most Mormons. Just like every fasting testimony meeting you'll ever attend.

[00:19:20] John and Vicki distinguished between revelations for individuals and revelations for the church as a whole. Although Mormon doctrine reserved the latter authority for the church president, they believed individuals could receive direct instructions from God. And they accepted another teaching the modern church had abandoned, plural marriage. Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants sanctioned polygamy.

[00:19:47] Although the church had officially ended the practice in 1890, John and Vicki believed the original revelation remained God's law. Their first child, Heidi, was born in 1964, followed by Suzanne in 1965 and Timothy in 1966. And we're seeing a pattern here. All three were delivered in the hospital.

[00:20:10] But after Timothy's birth, John and Vicki decided the rest of their children would be born at home without medical assistance. Charlotte, named for John's mother, arrived in 1968 with John and Vicki the only adults present. And their younger sons, Joseph Hiram, Benjamin and Israel Moroni were all born at home too. The singers became increasingly self-sufficient.

[00:20:36] They kept dairy cows and produced milk, cheese, butter, buttermilk and ice cream, selling the surplus to neighbors. Most of their food came from their property and the wood from the surrounding forests provided fuel. John's television repair business brought in about $200 a month, which was enough to cover their remaining expenses. But as the family grew, John's relationship with his uncle Gus Weller got worse.

[00:21:02] Gus still expected him to work on the 160 acre farm, sometimes demanding help at all hours. John had worked for Gus for about 17 years, collecting no wages apart from the land he'd built his house on. He'd milked cows, dug irrigation ditches, repaired machinery, built farm buildings and paid for supplies out of his own pocket. Now he had six children to support and couldn't continue providing so much unpaid labor.

[00:21:28] Gus believed that his farm was dedicated to God and would become a gathering place for righteous Mormons during the millennium. He expected John to continue helping him to prepare it. Their arguments got worse. And on top of all that, another source of tension emerged. A woman named Shirley Black. Mm-hmm. Now Shirley Black was a married Mormon woman from Kamas about a year older than John.

[00:21:53] She'd first met him in 1958 when he repaired her television. And unlike most of his customers, Shirley enjoyed his jokes, his laughter and endless discussions about religion. She began studying scripture with John and Gus Weller. Around 1961, Shirley developed severe back pain that was not relieved by all the visits she could take to chiropractors.

[00:22:19] She eventually asked Gus for a priesthood blessing and claimed the pain disappeared the next morning, never to return. She considered the healing proof that Mormonism was true. Shirley was in an unhappy marriage to construction worker Dean Black. They would have seven children together. In a custody dispute years later, Shirley accused Dean of heavy drinking, physical and emotional abuse of her and their children,

[00:22:48] a violent temper, and opposition to the family practicing religion. Dean denied the allegations and the judge ruled in his favor. In 1965, their oldest daughter was preparing to marry in the Mormon temple. She wanted her parents to have their own marriage sealed for eternity at the same time. But Shirley couldn't bear the thought of being married to Dean forever. She fasted for 24 hours and prayed for guidance.

[00:23:16] According to Shirley, God revealed that although he loved both her and Dean, he didn't want them together in the celestial kingdom. Instead, she believed God intended her to become John's plural wife, although she would have to wait several years. Shirley told John and Vicki about the revelation. I love getting a revelation that tells me what I want to do. So great.

[00:23:42] By 1968, John suspected that Gus Weller wanted Shirley as a plural wife for himself. Gus didn't like that Shirley was turning to John more and more. And when Shirley told him that she had a revelation that she would marry John, Gus was furious. He demanded that she deny having received that revelation and said that he would end their friendship if she refused. She refused. She refused.

[00:24:07] Her relationship with the Wellers ended and John lost a man who'd almost been a father to him since he arrived in Marion. Gus was one authority John fought. The Mormon church was another, and that fight was older. John objected whenever teachers relied on church manuals instead of scripture. He challenged statements that seemed to contradict the Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Mormon, or teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

[00:24:37] He particularly disliked the expectation that members obey current church leaders without question. Drawing on his childhood in Nazi Germany, John compared unquestioning obedience to Mormon leaders with the behavior of Germans who'd followed Hitler. He reminded fellow members that following orders had not excused Nazi crimes at Nuremberg. And eventually, the congregation grew tired of his interruptions.

[00:25:05] Vicki joined him in challenging church teachings, and the couple stopped attending meetings and paying tithing. John was so religious, though, he even built a baptismal font in the woods behind their house and began performing religious ordinances for his family. Mm-hmm. So John took his objections that he had with the church right to the top to Joseph Fielding Smith, who became president of the Mormon church in 1970. John had had two encounters with Joseph Fielding Smith.

[00:25:35] But when he was 19, he had met Smith, who was then an apostle, and asked him whether Jesus Christ had been married. Smith told him, stay away from religious mysteries. John disagreed, arguing that Joseph Smith himself had encouraged believers to investigate the mysteries of godliness. That's what's so appealing to people like John Singer about Joseph Smith. But Joseph Fielding Smith had stay away.

[00:26:02] They met again in 1964 when John went to church headquarters to challenge Fielding Smith about Gus Weller's excommunication for teaching false doctrine. Joseph Fielding Smith promised that he would review Gus's case, but nothing came of it. So when Smith became church president, John publicly called him a coward and rejected his prophetic authority. On May 31st, 1972, John and Vicki were summoned before the Camas State High Council.

[00:26:31] They brought John's brother Harold, who shared their fundamentalist beliefs and intended to speak on their behalf. The council asked whether they accepted the current teachings of the church's general authorities and sustained Joseph Fielding Smith as a prophet. Both John and Vicki said no. They were asked whether they accepted the church's position against plural marriage and whether they considered the 1890 manifesto revelation from God. Again, both said no.

[00:26:59] Harold defended their beliefs by stating Joseph Smith's teachings about religious freedom and Brigham Young's warnings against rejecting plural marriage. John and Vicki were asked to leave the room for a minute while the council deliberated. John declared that when Christ returned, he would stand beside the Savior while the council members would be destroyed by God.

[00:27:30] Excommunication could carry serious consequences in a predominantly Mormon community. Members could lose friends, customers, employment, and their standing among their neighbors. So many fundamentalists therefore kept their beliefs private. Some formed isolated communities where they continued practicing plural marriage and preparing for Christ's return. They believed God would eventually raise up a powerful man to restore the church to its original teachings.

[00:28:01] John and Vicki were already unpopular in the Camas Valley where they were excommunicated. Pulling their children from public school the following year only made matters worse. By the summer of 1973, John had told the school board to go to hell. He'd been excommunicated for a year at this point and his children were still at home. The South Summit school board was under pressure to do something about the singer children.

[00:28:26] All six board members were Mormon and one of them had served on the high council that excommunicated John and Vicki. Another was a brother of a high councilman. Superintendent Val Edrington was also an active church member. And then in July 1973 something happened that briefly changed the district's attitude towards John. Two boys were playing on a raft reservoir south of the singer farm. The water was about 15 feet deep and neither boy could swim. When the rafty returned, both boys started struggling.

[00:28:56] Heidi Singer heard them crying for help and ran to get her dad. John rushed to the reservoir, jumped in, pulled one child to the shore and immediately dove back in to search for the other. For 20 minutes, John dived repeatedly beneath the surface, still wearing his boots looking for that little boy. Finally exhausted, he came out of the water. He hadn't found the second boy. The child who drowned was 10 year old Spencer Smith.

[00:29:23] The boy who was rescued told them his name was Jeff Edrington. He was the school superintendent Val Edrington's son. When school started again in September, the Singer children stayed at home. Superintendent Edrington told the school board that John Singer had saved his son's life and he didn't want to take him to court.

[00:29:46] The board sought advice from the state superintendent, Walter Talbot, who consulted the attorney general's office and recommended enforcing the compulsory attendance law. On October 18th, 1973, the case went to juvenile court and a complaint was issued accusing John and Vicki of contributing to the delinquency and neglect of their three school aged children. A hearing was set for December 10th. A deputy sheriff delivered the summons.

[00:30:15] Vicki was furious at being accused of neglect. She pointed to the children playing in the living room, Heidi washing vegetables and John working outside with Timothy and Joseph. Did any of those children look neglected? The deputy admitted they didn't, but said that was for the judge to decide. John and Vicki didn't appear at the hearing. Judge Merrill Hermanson issued a warrant for John's arrest.

[00:30:42] The next day, deputy sheriff Leon Wilde had known John for years visited the Singer farm with the warrant. He warned that if John continued refusing to appear in court, authorities might eventually arrive with enough officers to force their way onto the property. And John warned that if they tried that, there would be bloodshed. Deputy Sheriff Wilde left without arresting him. On January 10th, 1974, Sheriff Ron Robinson and deputy Fred Ely spotted Singer's yellow Ford van during a snowstorm in Kamas.

[00:31:11] They followed him to a house where he had stopped to repair a television. As John opened the van door with his tools in hand, the officers tried to arrest him. He dropped his toolbox in the snow and was holding a long screwdriver, which tore the sheriff's sleeve and scratched his arm where Sheriff Robison had grabbed him. Deputy Ely grabbed John's other arm and tried to cuff him. John pulled free and dropped the screwdriver. He said he would go with the police officers peacefully as long as they didn't cuff him.

[00:31:40] And oh, what a different time it must have been in those days. No kidding. Small town too. John spent the night in the Colville jail. It was only the second night he'd spent away from Vicki since their marriage. The next day, Judge Hermanson offered a compromise. If John developed a home education program acceptable to the school board, the district could grant an exemption and the court would dismiss the complaint.

[00:32:07] Otherwise, he could return the children to public school or face trial. A conviction could mean jail, compulsory enrollment, or both. John reluctantly agreed to work with a court-appointed lawyer, James Smedley. They developed a teaching schedule covering approved subjects for five and a half hours each day and a standardized testing that happened twice a year. The school board approved the arrangement and Judge Hermanson dismissed the case.

[00:32:35] For a while, the compromise worked. John and Vicki tried to follow the approved program, but the demands were overwhelming. The children were at levels ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade. So they all needed differentiation. Their required schedule took up so much time in their day that there was less time for the practical skills that John and Vicki valued and wanted to teach. They followed the prescribed curriculum through the spring of 1974.

[00:33:02] They took a summer break and then started again in September. Over the following months, John and Vicki gradually reduced the formal instruction from five and a half hours to four and a half. They substituted their own textbooks and started incorporating religious instruction and let the children progress at their own pace. John used Book of Mormon Stories to teach spelling and handwriting. They made these changes without informing the district. In the spring of 1975, Tony Powell, the school psychologist, tested the children.

[00:33:31] Their scores were somewhat behind those of public school children, but Powell thought that might just be because the kids weren't used to taking standardized tests. He described the children as healthy, intelligent, industrious and cooperative, but warned that they would continue falling behind unless they returned to conventional schooling, in his opinion. John refused and Vicki explained that they didn't believe that children should be measured through competition with others. She trusted God to guide each child toward whatever knowledge he or she would need in life.

[00:34:01] The district said, OK, let's just keep monitoring and testing the children for another year. Vicki had told Powell that God would show each child what to learn. The singers took that same position on medicine. John and Vicki relied on priesthood blessings and prayer rather than conventional medical care. They regarded illness as a test of faith and recovery as evidence of divine healing.

[00:34:28] They also believed God communicated through dreams. Now, John kept a diary of significant dreams while Vicki maintained a journal of her own and the children's experiences. Around 1970, John dreamed that he'd built a log fortress at the entrance to his property. Wearing buckskin and carrying a rifle, pistol and bowie knife, he prepared to defend the farm from approaching mobs.

[00:34:53] In the second part of the dream, John stood at the entrance to a Mormon chapel. Inside were people whose faces resembled dull, brownish-gray stone. A voice warned him that his troubles would originate there. John interpreted the dream as a warning that Satan had gained control of the Mormon church and its members would eventually cause bloodshed. Well, we can agree on that.

[00:35:23] Ah, lol. Another dream regarded plural marriage. In that one, John stood at the foot of a mountain with two women waiting at the summit. As he climbed towards them, an angry crowd pursued him. An enormous iron gate fell from the sky, separating him from his pursuers. He understood the women to represent his future plural wives and the crowd to represent the church and government authorities. The gate would mean that God would protect him.

[00:35:49] Now, for Vicki, the prospect of plural marriage was legitimately deeply upsetting. She wanted to obey God, but struggled with the idea of sharing John. One night, her anxiety was so bad that her throat tightened up so much it was painful. She prayed for guidance and the next morning while she was making the bed, she experienced what she described as a revelation. God had shown her plural marriage in heaven, she believed, where women could share a husband without jealousy. That's the whole point.

[00:36:18] The idea is that you'll get over yourself, right? That there's something wrong with you if you have these normal responses to experiences. She became convinced that God would give her the strength when the time came. She'd need that faith sooner than she expected and for something else entirely. Their seventh child, Israel Moroni, was born October 1975. A few weeks later, Vicki developed severe toothaches.

[00:36:46] She'd stopped seeing dentists after marrying John. Her gums become swollen and abscessed and the infection spread toward her ears. She was in terrible pain, sometimes going days without being able to eat solid food. John kept giving her priesthood blessings and prayed for her recovery. Suzanne, who was approaching 11, took over most of the care of baby Israel and all the school lessons stopped.

[00:37:13] The illness continued for about five months and by January 1976, Vicki weighed only 105 pounds and was so weak, someone had to carry her to the bathroom. The children worried that she would die. But even then, John and Vicki refused medical treatment. By late February, Vicki was recovering. She started caring for baby Israel again, resumed cooking and teaching the children.

[00:37:42] The couple believed that she had survived an extraordinary test of faith. Their experience made them more determined than ever to resist government supervision. So when Tony Powell, the school psychologist, contacted them in April 1976 to arrange the agreed upon achievement tests, Vicki said, nope, not this time, we're not going to cooperate. She believed laws interfering with parental authority were tyrannical and predicted that the existing government would soon be replaced by a theocracy.

[00:38:10] She was expecting signs of the times, disasters, economic crises and social unrest that would lead faithful people to gather in the mountains of Utah and live under God's commandments. Powell reminded her that the court would apply the laws that currently existed. The school board was once again faced with the problem it had tried to resolve two years earlier.

[00:38:39] In March 1977, the school board gave the singers another opportunity to cooperate. John attended the March 9th board meeting and said that he wouldn't allow the district to monitor or test his children and he wouldn't keep an attendance record. So the board took back the homeschooling exemption because that was part of the requirements and ordered that the children be enrolled in school by March 18th. Naturally, the singers ignored that.

[00:39:03] On May 3rd, the school district failed a new complaint alleging educational neglect of the five oldest children. And meanwhile, Vicki's tooth infection came back. This time, because it had returned, she believed it meant God had given her permission to see a dentist. How? Whatever. Not sure of the logic. It's whatever you want to do. And a dentist pulled four of her teeth. One reporter said that by the time they interviewed her, she had no teeth at all.

[00:39:33] Now, Vicki had a dream that God would replace her teeth. She refused to wear dentures because she was convicted that her new teeth would grow back in. While Vicki waited for those new teeth, the district's complaint reached court. On June 7th, 1977, John and Vicki appeared before Judge Charles Bradford. Told they could plead guilty, not guilty, or remain silent, they chose silence.

[00:40:01] Each faced up to six months in jail, a $299 fine, or both. They refused legal representation, believing God had told them not to hire a lawyer. Judge Bradford privately suggested sending the children to public school and teaching them at home afterward to counter anything they disagreed with. Vicki compared that to putting children repeatedly in sewage and then washing them afterward, hoping that they would undo what they'd been exposed to.

[00:40:31] She later remembered Bradford telling them they were standing on their constitutional rights. Judge Bradford himself, a Mormon, had told the singers that he wanted to homeschool his children too, but he hadn't been able to make it work. So their thinking was not like so outlandish. On August 3rd, before he left the bench, Judge Bradford appointed attorney Robert Orton as guardian ad litem for the children.

[00:40:59] A GAL is a lawyer whose job it is to speak for the children's interests, apart from their parents. So to John and Vicki, this looked even more like the state trying to take control of their children. John compared it to Nazi Germany. They turned again to Doctrine and Covenants section 98, which they interpreted as requiring three standards of peace before they were given divine permission to fight.

[00:41:25] John wrote to Judge Bradford on August 7th, accusing him of violating God's law and the Constitution. If Robert Orton came to the farm as the guardian ad litem of John's children, he wrote, I will personally throw him out. So that letter he treated as the first of his three standards of peace. Section 98 laid out what came after standards of peace were refused and John got ready.

[00:41:52] Three days later, he carried a carbine and two pistols into Hoyts Canyon near the family's baptismal font and dedicated the guns to God. He promised to use them only for food or defense, never aggression or revenge. Judge L. Kent Buckman had replaced Judge Bradford on August 15th. On August 10th, the school district had filed more petitions, charging the children as neglected and habitually truant. The hearing was set for August 23rd.

[00:42:21] Before the August 23rd hearing, John, Vicki and their oldest children fasted for 24 hours. John represented himself. The courtroom was more than half full. He had subpoenaed every school board member to make them sit through it. Vicki sat beside him with the Book of Mormon on her lap. John opened by telling the court, quote, This issue here is a religious issue and only a religious issue, end quote.

[00:42:48] John admitted to keeping his children out of school but denied neglecting them. The first witness was Rex Walker, the principal who'd participated in John and Vicki's excommunication. The only question John asked Walker was whether he was Mormon. He said he was. The prosecutor introduced John's 1973 letter to the board telling them to go to hell.

[00:43:12] When Superintendent Edrington testified, John brought up saving his son's life and the judge ruled that irrelevant. The school psychologist Tony Powell testified that Heidi and Suzanne were roughly 18 months behind their school age peers, while Timothy was two years behind in several subjects. John asked why the test didn't measure whether a child could use an axe, a saw or a hammer. The judge disallowed the question. John described the skills his children were learning. His son had built an outhouse.

[00:43:41] One daughter could paint. Another cooked and could manage a household. Suzanne had cared for baby Israel during Vicki's illness. The prosecutor asked John about textbook schedules and missed school days. John called the school officials, idiots. He talked about the Hitler Youth Program and warned against government control of children. He didn't want another educational arrangement and would only consider advice from someone if he thought they were someone with the spirit of God.

[00:44:10] Judge Backman, apparently not with the spirit of God, found John and Vicki guilty of educational neglect, emphasizing that they had agreed to a homeschooling arrangement, but then failed to follow through. He ordered psychological evaluations and temporarily placed the children in state custody, even though they were physically still in their parents' custody. Both parents received suspended 60-day jail sentences and $299 fines, conditional on cooperating with getting tested.

[00:44:42] Dr. Victor Klein, a University of Utah psychologist, examined the four oldest children and found them relaxed and cooperative. All of them wanted to learn at home. After a Park City newspaper ran a full-page story on the family, the singers met other homeschooling families. One shared a letter from State Superintendent Walter Talbot saying Utah didn't impose educational standards on private schools.

[00:45:08] It was the workaround that family had used, and so John believed he found a solution. On October 7, 1977, the state issued a certificate of incorporation for High Uintas Academy. John canceled the psychological assessments for him and for Vicki. Back in court on November 1st, the prosecutor argued that the parents had already been ordered to undergo examinations, whatever the school status.

[00:45:37] When Bachman asked for a legal reason not to enforce their suspended sentences, John raised a moral objection. Vicki suggested God should provide the answer. Bachman imposed the 60 days and the $299 fines and then stayed them 30 days so that the singers could appeal. Orton worried that jailing both parents would hurt the children.

[00:46:01] Two days later, John and Vicki underwent six hours of interviews and psychological testing. Dr. Klein described an unusually close and affectionate family. He found Vicki competent and resourceful. John, intelligent, independent, stubborn, and capable. Neither parent showed evidence of mental illness. The children appeared emotionally healthy. But he was alarmed by their test results. Klein attributed the discrepancy to not enough intellectual stimulation and not enough contact with other children.

[00:46:31] Heide and Suzanne performed poorly in academic achievement, although Timothy tested comparable to his age group. Dr. Klein recommended remedial lessons and more interaction with peers. He strongly opposed removing the children from their parents, believing that that separation would cause serious psychological harm. The court arranged another conference.

[00:46:53] Judge Bachman warned John and Vicki that refusing to improve their children's education could lead to foster placement and perhaps permanent separation. He set the trial for December 16th. They wouldn't compromise. As they left, they saw several police officers in court and took that as an indication that the court might be planning to seize their children at the next hearing. Press coverage kept growing.

[00:47:16] It drew in Alex Joseph, a polygamist leader from near Glen Canyon, who arrived with one of his wives, Elizabeth, who was a law student. Their community had its own compulsory attendance case. Elizabeth brought federal court decisions supporting private education, and Joseph offered free legal help. John refused. Joseph urged him to use legal procedures rather than physical resistance and warned that he was putting himself in danger of being killed.

[00:47:45] On December 4th, John raised his second standard of peace. It was a letter that ran 10 single spaced pages addressed to Judge Bachman, prosecutor Terry Christiansen, and Robert Orton. Four pages recounted the dispute. Four more drew on Mormon scripture and a Joseph Smith sermon about parents and children. It cited three court decisions and quoted D&C section 98. He wrote that the family hadn't reviled anyone or sought revenge and that, quote,

[00:48:14] as pertaining to my children, they are enrolled in my private school and so it will stand, end quote. Vicky typed it. At several points, she was so overcome with joy that she stopped and clapped her hands like, oh, you genius husband. Once she left the typewriter to pray. On December 9th, state superintendent Walter Talbot sent every school superintendent in Utah an attorney general's opinion on what counts as, quote, a regularly established private school, end quote.

[00:48:43] The legislator had never decided it, so local school boards needed to decide. The opinion also treated home education and private schools as different things. Under it, High Uentas Academy was a school only if the South Summit School Board said so. And they hadn't. On December 11th, the singers washed their feet to be clean of the court business.

[00:49:07] Doctrine and Covenants section 60, verse 15 tells believers who've been rejected to wash their feet privately as a testimony against those who turned them away. For John and Vicky, the courts had become those people. They wrote to the court that they wouldn't appear at the next day's trial. On December 16th, they stayed home. Bachman issued a bench warrant for John's arrest, set bail at $300, and moved the trial to January 3rd.

[00:49:36] The next day, John raised his third standard of peace. Now, the first had gone to Judge Bradford. The second was the 10 page later. This one was shorter. He implored Judge Bachman, quote, in the name of the living God, end quote, to dismiss all charges against him and his family and warned of eternal consequences. Toward the end of December, Sheriff Robinson called and asked whether John would consent to arrest.

[00:50:05] John said no. He said he'd have to resist. He gathered the family to read a sign attributed to Revolutionary War Captain John Parker. His men should hold their ground, not fire unless fired upon, and if the other side wanted a war, they'd meet it where they stood. On January 3rd, 1978, the singers didn't appear for trial on the neglect petitions, despite pleas from friends and offers of free legal help.

[00:50:34] Dr. Klein testified that the children had been deprived of intellectual stimulation and training through inadequate education and isolation. Bachman found the children neglected. In a written order signed January 18th, Bachman ordered daily tutoring, paid for and supervised by the district. Powell and Klein would test the children every two months. Children would stay at home in the custody of the state's Division of Family Services.

[00:51:02] The district had until February 1st to propose a plan and the singers would have five days to respond. School officials now publicly revealed that John's original test book objections included racial equality. He faced valid accusations of racism along with the existing criticism. Visitors and reporters crowded the farm. With the arrest hanging over them, the family stopped leaving the property.

[00:51:32] John sold his television repair equipment and continued to carry a pistol with him when he was outside. In January, the whole family became seriously ill. Vicki described fevers, vomiting, exhaustion, and children too weak to get out of bed. Now both parents' teeth were badly decayed. Vicki wondered whether Satan was trying to kill them. An administrative change moved Summit County to a different juvenile court district,

[00:52:01] and the case passed to Judge John Larson, who remained unconvinced by John's three standards of peace. Imagine that. On January 30th, the school district mailed the singers its tutoring plan. A certified teacher would come to this farmhouse seven and a half hours a day, 180 days a year. The singers said they were not going to let a tutor inside their house. When the five days passed, the prosecutor asked Judge Larson to hold them in contempt.

[00:52:28] At a February 21st meeting of local citizens, residents asked Superintendent Edrington how far the district would push the case. Natalie Noble, who was there and later signed an affidavit, said that Edrington answered if pressing it meant John Singer was shot, quote, then that's the way it would be, end quote. Two days later, Edrington and the school board president met with Judge Larson in his chambers. The board's minutes say that Judge Larson told them he would take action and would, quote,

[00:52:58] not allow the court to be backed into a corner, end quote. The same day, Judge Larson ordered the singers to appear on March 14th to explain why they shouldn't be held in contempt and why their children shouldn't be removed. On February 28th, Sheriff Robinson called ahead before serving the orders, promising to leave his gun in the car. John said he'd never allow anyone on the property to enforce them, and he'd rather fight than give in to orders against his religion.

[00:53:27] The singers skipped the March 14th hearing. Sheriff Robinson testified that John was ready to use force to stop officers from arresting him. Judge Larson found John and Vicki in contempt and ordered a 30 day jail sentence and a $200 fine, stayed for seven days so they could appeal. He also ordered the children removed. He said, quote, the olive branch is still out, end quote. Vicki saw the olive branch as another temptation from Satan.

[00:53:54] She believed appealing would cancel their three standards of peace and the washing of their feet. Robert Orton visited the children at the farm. He was impressed by their practical skills, but he still couldn't persuade John and Vicki to persuade. But he still couldn't persuade John and Vicki to appeal. On March 20th, someone filed an unsigned notice of appeal. The singer said they hadn't filed it. And on April 6th, Judge Larson ruled it invalid.

[00:54:24] He put the children in state custody and ordered the sheriff to take John and Vicki to jail. He said the children had rights of their own, the right to an education. News of this chaos spread nationally. Reports describe John barricaded at home with an M1 carbine. Supporters sent letters and small donations. Some offered to arrive with guns. John wisely declined. Utah legislators warned that somebody could be killed.

[00:54:54] Attorney General Robert Hansen, who had no jurisdiction over the case, called the sheriff and asked him to hold off. Utah Representative Samuel Taylor, a Salt Lake City Democrat and one of the few non-Mormons in the legislature, visited the farm and found a tidy schoolhouse full of books and healthy children. He'd examined the district statistics on teenage pregnancy and believed John had some legitimate complaints about the local schools. So Taylor promised to help.

[00:55:23] But Dr. Klein told television viewers that the children were being harmed and described John as damaging their brains through isolation. The singers were furious. You know, I would be really pissed if a University of Utah psychologist went on television and said that I was damaging my children's brains. I would be too. Yeah. On May 19th, Robert Orton asked the court to delay the arrests for 60 days. I mean, basically everyone is like, what do we do?

[00:55:52] They're giving them every opportunity. They keep delaying and staying things so that they can make the right choice. Exactly. It's sort of like, if you break the law, what are the consequences? The consequences are we have to lay down some consequences, but we won't enforce them. And then they just do that again and again. So it's interesting. God, it could have gone so many ways. And this is the way it went. No. On June 9th, while the motion was pending, Sheriff Robinson came to the farm unarmed while two deputies waited by the gate. John had a pistol in his pocket.

[00:56:23] When Robinson said he had to take the parents to jail, John replied that he'd rather be buried in his garden. Asked if he would use the gun that he had, John said he would use whatever means he had to. And Vicky threatened to attack the sheriff too. So the sheriff left, reporting that he couldn't safely serve the warrants without armed officers. The same day, Mormon Church President Spencer W. Kimball announced the revelation, allowing black men to hold the priesthood for the first time.

[00:56:49] It was the restriction John had invoked in 1973 when he objected to Martin Luther King's inclusion in his daughter's textbook. Judge Larson granted Robert Orden a week's delay, then more. On July 3rd, he cancelled the order placing the children in state custody and stayed Vicky's warrant. It's like you keep saying you're going to do it and then not do it. He kept John's 30 day jail sentence in effect and told the sheriff to use whatever time and means he reasonably thought would avoid injury.

[00:57:18] He'd consider probation if John appeared in court and agreed to obey to the law. Now, State Representative Sam Taylor wrote to the singers the next day. He told them the court had handed them a 98% ruling in their favour and asked, quote, what will you do about the other 2%, end quote. So, Taylor kept visiting the farm, urging John to submit to a plan to the courts.

[00:57:44] John refused, but said that he would meet Judge Larson if the judge came out to the farm. So, Representative Taylor wrote to Larson and suggested the visit. Judge Larson wrote back and said, hey, I've never met John and Vicky Singer before because guess what? They've never come to court. I will meet them if they ever come to call my office and they would probably do well to appeal.

[00:58:11] On July 15, 1978, Shirley Black telephoned the singers in tears. She told Dean she wanted a divorce and feared his return from Nebraska where he was working construction. Shirley had believed for more than 12 years at this point that God intended her to marry John. He suggested that they get married immediately and that she move on to his property with her children.

[00:58:39] Shirley asked whether they should wait for her divorce. John read from Brigham Young's Journal of Discourses, interpreting it as allowing an unworthy husband's wife and children to pass to a more righteous man by revelation. Mm-hmm. So they agreed to fast and pray and Vicky struggled with jealousy and intense physical anxiety, which she understood as Satan interfering with her obedience.

[00:59:08] Yep. Every time you feel shit in your relationship, it's just Satan. It's gotta be Satan. Mm-hmm. Every time your husband's doing something that makes you feel intense anxiety, you're getting tested by Satan. Mm-hmm. Yep. That adversary is a sneaky son of a bitch. Yeah, it makes you feel like crap when he takes sex to wives. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. On July 17th, the three walked into Hoyt's Canyon to the baptismal font.

[00:59:29] Vicky stood between John and Shirley and, following the example of Sarah giving Hagar to Abraham, placed Shirley's right hand in John's. John asked Vicky to consent to Shirley becoming his wife for life and eternity, and she agreed. Shirley accepted John. Then John pronounced them married by his priesthood authority, invoking resurrection, exaltation, and the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[00:59:59] Shirley cried during the ceremony. The singer children were the first ones told they didn't even know polygamy was illegal, so it made perfect sense to them. The families planned to keep the marriage secret, however. Which is good, because it wasn't really a marriage. And she's still married to Dean. Soon afterward, the deaths of another Mormon family attracted national attention.

[01:00:23] On July 31st, 1978, self-proclaimed religious leader Emmanuel David died by suicide. Three days later, his wife Rachel and their seven children either fell, jumped, or were pushed from an 11th floor hotel balcony in Salt Lake City. Witnesses described the older children jumping, and Rachel throwing the younger children before jumping herself. Rachel and six children died. One child survived with severe brain damage.

[01:00:51] Now, Emmanuel David had been excommunicated from the Mormon church after claiming to embody God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. He said he possessed the original gold plates and would become a church leader. He was unemployed, yet the family lived in a hotel suite that they paid $90 a day for in cash with a maid and a bodyguard. The FBI was investigating him for fraud. Rachel and the children rarely left the hotel. Well, the children had never attended public school.

[01:01:19] So naturally, journalists made the comparison between that family's isolation and the patriarchal religious authority with the singers. Representative Taylor wrote to Judge Larson again, citing the David family deaths as a warning. He suggested home confinement as a way to enforce punishment without armed arrest. This time, Judge Larson did not respond.

[01:01:44] Now, the publicity for John and Vicki made things worse for the Weller family, who, if you remember, had given John his land or paid him with it by John's account. When NBC planned a visit, Gus Weller's son-in-law, Dick Watson, barricaded the private lane to the singer property. John dismantled the barricade, but Watson put it back. Gus's son, Sam Weller, called and warned NBC against visiting. The network interviewed the singers by telephone instead.

[01:02:14] Jared and Sam Weller also began demanding rent on John's two and a half acres, arguing he had no written deed. John insisted that Gus had given him the land through a sacred covenant in payment for years of unpaid farm work. John kept working on the small house behind his own for Shirley and her children, and on October 4th, 1978, they moved in.

[01:02:40] Now that evening, John said goodnight to Vicki and their seven children and went to sleep at Shirley's house. Vicki had shared a bed with him for 15 years. Several children clung to her and cried. She paced the house, unable to write coherently in her journal. Heidi worried that additional wives would leave John less time for his first family. And Vicki and Heidi cried together.

[01:03:07] John came back at three in the morning saying that he and Shirley couldn't sleep either. They believed that Satan was tormenting them. So the three, John, Vicki and Shirley went to Shirley's house, prayed. John walked Vicki back home and then went back to Shirley's. The next morning Vicki saw smoke coming from Shirley's chimney. And then Shirley's daughter came over to borrow some butter.

[01:03:31] Vicki wrote that ordinary domestic exchange reassured her for a while. Well, she felt good for a minute or at least told herself she did. But the distress and the jealousy continued. John started spending alternating nights at Shirley's house. And Vicki could see that he was genuinely in love with her. She wrote that some days the pain made her physically sick. Shirley withdrew her children from public school and they joined the senior children in the red schoolhouse.

[01:04:00] John's brother, Harold, thought the marriage's timing disastrous, especially while Shirley was still legally married. And grandma singer John's mother begged him to resolve the schooling dispute, but he refused. One Sunday, John announced that God had revealed the family's mission to establish Zion on their two and a half acre farm. He predicted catastrophe would send armed starving mobs from the cities to steal their food.

[01:04:28] They would have to defend the property, killing attackers if necessary. John claimed God had identified 10 more women he was meant to marry. Eight were already married. Among them were Shirley's three eldest daughters and John's own sister in Texas. One unmarried woman was 19. Vicki and Shirley were astonished. But his sister. His sister.

[01:04:56] But they, as astonished as Vicki and Shirley were, they accepted his claims. Okay. The family reported more dreams of armed mobs. John started building a fourth house on the southeastern corner of the property for a future wife. Sheriff Robinson couldn't see how to arrest John without someone getting hurt. And I kind of agree with him. Yeah.

[01:05:27] In August, he'd asked Judge Larson to drop the order's language, telling him to avoid inflicting bodily harm on anyone. And the judge agreed. In early October, he asked the state for help and the Department of Public Safety agreed to assist him. Meanwhile, Dean Black came home from Nebraska to find his wife and children gotten from the house. If you remember, he was a construction worker and his work kept him away for months at a time. Within days, news of John's second plural marriage was public.

[01:05:55] On October 16th, the prosecutor asked Judge Larson to reinstate Vicki's Warren and the state custody of the Singer children, calling John living with another woman, quote, an extremely unhealthy situation for them. The judge granted it. John confirmed to a newspaper that he did practice polygamy, but claimed that his second wife was divorced. Another newspaper identified who Shirley was and reported that she was still married to Dean. Because she was. Because it was true.

[01:06:24] On October 19th, three state agents drove to the farm posing as a freelance writer and his camera crew. John had agreed to talk with the writer. As John shook hands with one of the crew, the agents grabbed him and said they were police. John got free with a pistol and pointed it at them. Vicki, Shirley's children, and Alvin Reiter, a friend living on the farm, ran out. The agents backed away. John told his family afterward that the gun was unloaded.

[01:06:52] A felony warrant followed, charging John with three counts of aggravated assault. Governor Scott Matheson asked about the masquerade said, quote, I don't think that is a good practice. No. Dean appeared on television comparing John's vision of a divinely governed society to Hitler. Shirley's father threatened to lead a vigilante confrontation. God. Representative Taylor wisely withdrew his support upon learning Shirley was still married.

[01:07:21] Within a week, Shirley was excommunicated. On January 6th, John turned 48. Grandma Singer gave him her latest social security check. It was all she had. She worried about his weight loss and exhaustion. She told him that watching him suffer made her weary of living. He hugged her and admitted that sometimes he felt that way too. Foreshadowing? Should I do it? Maybe.

[01:07:47] For 18 days starting December 27th, officers had watched the farm from a rented house nearby, posing as vacationing skiers. The family noticed men dressed as skiers riding snowmobiles around the neighboring properties. John suspected they were police officers. On January 17th, the 10 officers on the arrest team were briefed. They were told about the October gun draw. Their commander left it to each man what to do if a gun was pointed at him.

[01:08:16] On January 18th, at least three snowmobiles appeared, this time with uniformed officers. Around noon, John walked to the mailbox carrying his rifle and left a letter. At 1230, he started clearing the lane with a snowblower and left the rifle by the gate. After a while, he left the machine running and walked to the mailbox again. John's daughter Charlotte was watching from the house through binoculars. Officers waited near the road and an abandoned A-frame cabin.

[01:08:45] When John reached his mailbox on Upper Loop Road, they received the order to move. John turned homeward. Seeing armed men on snowmobiles slowing to enter his lane, he began running toward the property. Officer Louis Jolly shouted that they were police and that John was under arrest. John drew a pistol from his waistband and moved it back and forth toward his pursuers while running. Officers ordered him to stop and drop it.

[01:09:14] From the house, Charlotte saw her father running and called for Vicki to get a gun. Through the binoculars, Vicki saw John waving the pistol towards the officers. She thought he wanted them to leave him alone. She ran to fetch Timothy's .22 rifle. Two more officers ran along a fence line towards the lane. Officer Bates had his revolver out. Hayward aimed his shotgun between John's shoulder blades. Other officers thought that John was aiming towards Jolly's snowmobile.

[01:09:43] Louis Jolly raised his shotgun and fired. Charlotte, still at the window, saw her father take two more steps, lurch forward and fall into the snow. Blood poured out of his mouth. Vicki heard the shot while she was getting the rifle. Timothy and Shirley's son Grant heard it outside and Grant grabbed Shirley's pistol. Heidi reached the house where Vicki held a rifle and Charlotte stood speechless at the window.

[01:10:11] Heidi picked up her bow and her arrows. John pushed against the snow as if trying to rise and then collapsed and stopped moving. He was taken to Summit County Hospital. At 1.15 that afternoon, Dr. John Kumagai pronounced him dead. The days after John's death were miserable for Vicki and the children. Vicki felt such pressure around her heart that she was legitimately afraid she was having a heart attack.

[01:10:38] And once again, she believed it was Satan, trying to literally kill her. John's funeral was held on Monday, January 22nd, 1979. About 350 people attended. His brother Harold spoke for 50 minutes. He recalled that John's birth was on January 6th, which is the Feast of the Three Kings in Germany. Their grandmother believed that that date foretold John's importance as a religious figure.

[01:11:04] Harold said his brother was a martyr who defended religious truth and constitutional freedom. The mourners in the crowd murmured their agreement. Harold said that he wanted justice rather than revenge. Heidi sang John's favorite hymn, Redeemer of Israel. Vicki and Shirley, the sister wives, walked out holding hands and rode together to the cemetery. Three weeks after John's funeral, Vicki felt overwhelmed by doubt and fear.

[01:11:32] However, she prayed and spoke to John, then opened her scriptures at random. In 3 Nephi chapter 20, she read about God gathering his people and establishing Zion. One verse described God's servant being harmed by enemies but protected and healed. Vicki believed it referred to John. She read the Testament of Levi, a 1937 book by Mormon high priest Francis Darter.

[01:11:59] It described corruption of the priesthood, persecution and a new priest who would restore God's law. One passage described a priest killed by his enemies who would rise again. Vicki believed John would return from the dead. Looking for her own role, she read Revelation chapter 12 about a woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet and a crown of 12 stars.

[01:12:23] Satan persecutes the woman after she gives birth to a son destined to rule nations. Vicki believed she was that woman. She wrote that this discovery replaced her fear with hope. Lying awake, she thought she felt John's spirit embracing her. She prayed for strength for what lay ahead.

[01:12:46] We'll be back next week with part two, where we return to the Singer farm in Marion and Adam Swapp's religious convictions lead to another armed confrontation with law enforcement nine years after John Singer's death. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to hear more episodes just like this one, you can find us online at postmormonpostmortem.com and on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. We're also on Patreon where paid members can hear part two right now.

[01:13:16] If you want to leave us a review and you don't know what to say, just say what I'm about to. I'm sorry for what I said when I was Mormon. And I'm sorry for what I said when I was Mormon too.