Misfiring on #1 cyl.

Been working on my daughter 96 Sable with a 3.0 eng. It has a misfire for sometime now. I put the code reader on and it still ays #1 misfire. After new plugs and wires. She had the coil packe changed a few years ago. The dummy who did this crossed two wires. So she drove for almost a year with this crossed.
Do you think the pack maybe damaged.?
I also pulled the wires and put an old spark plug in them and no sparks come from the wires. Is this something new that the plugs need to be grounded to get spark?