Slant 6 Turbo 68Dart Project

I pulled plug 3 to crank it and watch to see if the plug sparked. IE plug three completely removed from the head, and after a couple cranks the motor fired, shot the #3 plug tube out and stayed running, but ran like absolute dogshit. I put the plug back in and put the wire on and no start again.

This has me confused. I've double and tripple checked the spark plug wires, and they are all in the correct order, and the distributor is clocked to the EXACT same position I removed it from before disassembly. This is the only way to get the motor to run, is with one plug missing. Why is that?