The Minds of Billy Milligan

Dorothy denied the accusations in Johnny’s letter, claiming that he had a mental illness and was involved with another woman before his death, and he likely confused Dorothy with her; Billy made peace with Dorothy. In addition, Billy’s lawyers began working on reversing his previous guilty plea, which had sent him to Lebanon, so that he did not go back to prison (after his treatment at the Athens facility) for his parole violation of possessing firearms.

Local newspapers caught wind of Billy’s solo visits and weekends in town and begin running stories about them. This whipped up a furor among the local community that escalated to politicians and legislators demanding investigations at the hospital and changes in the laws that allowed Billy these privileges. Dr. Caul was forced to ask Billy to give up the privileges until the outcry died down, and the Teacher, saddened and feeling betrayed by a punishment meted out despite his following the rules, vanished.

Billy grew increasingly depressed. One day, Danny went for a walk on the hospital grounds and, following a trail of flowers, found himself past a gate and atop a sharp cliff. He was approached by hospital staff, who believed that Milligan was planning to jump; Allen took over, confusedly proclaiming that he felt groggy and might have taken a few extra pills. Alarmed, the hospital staff forcibly took Milligan to get his stomach pumped, believing he had overdosed. Ragen emerged and briefly fought the staff before Danny returned and succumbed to the medication.

When Milligan was taken back to Athens, he was informed that he was to be transferred to the men’s locked ward. Ragen reemerged, feeling angry and betrayed, and attempted to fight Dr. Caul and his team but was subdued and taken away. In the room, all 24 selves alternately reacted and responded to their new circumstances, angry and heartbroken; Arthur had no control over them anymore.

The newspapers learned of the alleged overdose and Milligan’s being moved to a security ward, and the debate resumed about his treatment at Athens. Dr. Wilbur was called to examine Milligan, and she asserted that such incidents were par for the course with the illness, and that Milligan’s privileges did not pose a threat to society. However, Dr. Wilbur’s judgment was questioned, considering that she had recommended Athens and the course of treatment in the first place. Dr. Caul, too, began to receive hateful and abusive messages, some accusing him and the hospital of reinforcing dangerous, misogynistic attitudes by allowing Milligan to shirk accountability for the rapes.

Dr. Wilbur’s assessment allowed Milligan to stay on at Athens; however, the staff demanded a new treatment protocol and drew up a contract with numerous conditions, including limited visitations and access to funds, for Milligan to sign. The unfused Billy did so, again feeling like he was being punished for someone else’s crimes. When the writer next visited Milligan, he spoke to the unfused Billy; over the course of the conversation, however, as Billy relaxed, the Teacher returned. He explained that Danny never intended to jump from the cliff and that Ragen would never have hurt anyone else; feeling betrayed, he planned to die by suicide. The writer requested that Billy stay fused because the Teacher was needed.

The newspapers continued to run hostile stories about Milligan, and once legislators found out that a book was being written about him, they began to push for a law to prevent offenders from making money by telling the stories of their lives and crimes. Despite all this, Billy remained stable; however, the writer and Dr. Caul both noticed that the Teacher was becoming more manipulative and antisocial, like some of the other alters. Billy told the writer about the changes he discovered in himself: While remaining Billy, he was able to pick locks like Tommy could and to ride a motorcycle with the same pulsating adrenaline rush as Ragen. As fusion occurred, the Teacher found himself becoming the “common denominator” of his 24 selves, which made him “less than the sum of his parts” (368) rather than an extraordinary human being.

One day, when Billy exited the hospital for a walk, two strangers shot at him. He froze when he saw their gun and then defused; Ragen emerged to dodge the bullet and escape. Ragen was furious at the Teacher’s indecision, and the Teacher disappeared, ashamed of his inaction. Ragen, Arthur, and Allen jointly decided to tell Dr. Caul, and no one else, about the attack. During Milligan’s next meeting with the writer, Allen pretended to be the Teacher, but the writer suspected that he was really talking to Allen.

On the morning of Milligan’s hearing to vacate his guilty plea from the drugstore robbery case, the writer met with him and discovered that the Teacher was back. Billy described the recent events and explained that Allen had been the one talking to the writer, posing as the Teacher, and apologized for the deception.

At the hearing, Milligan’s lawyers presented depositions from Turner and multiple doctors, including Harding, Caul, and Wilbur. All agreed on the “reasonable medical certainty” that Milligan was experiencing symptoms of DID while committing the robbery. The prosecution had only Dr. Brown as a witness, who last treated Milligan when he was 15 and asserted that he didn’t believe Milligan was a “multiple personality” based on a recent examination of him at Athens.

Milligan’s lawyers were convinced of their victory, but in the two weeks that elapsed before the judge gave his verdict, Milligan’s anxiety mounted. He defused again, and Steve ran away from the hospital, intending to jump from a nearby bridge and die by suicide; one of the nurses spotted him and convinced him to come back, and then Danny took over, crying and terrified.

A few days later, Milligan went for a walk with another patient, Gus Holston, whom he knew from his time in Lebanon; two other female patients, Lori and Marsha, headed out at the same time. Shortly after Milligan and Holston returned, Lori and Marsha were found on the grounds by security, drunk and throwing up. Rumors began to swirl that Milligan and Holston had raped the girls, though most of the hospital staff didn’t believe this. However, Milligan and Holston became extremely agitated when they heard that they were suspected of rape.

Fearing that they would be sent to either Lebanon or Lima, Holston and Steve broke out of the hospital and tried to run away; they were subdued and brought back, but Milligan was placed in a maximum-security ward. He tried to die by suicide, swallowing an arrowhead he wore on a necklace, and was again saved and subdued.

The news broke about the incidents at the hospital; the papers ran a story that Milligan had engaged in a “‘rum and Coke’ party” (392) and was suspected of raping two women. When the writer next met with Milligan, he was dazed and almost didn’t recognize the writer; when the writer asked whom he was speaking with, Milligan revealed that he didn’t know who he was. Shortly thereafter, a motion was filed on behalf of the state of Ohio and granted by Judge Roger J. Jones in the Athens County Common Pleas Court to transfer Holston to the Lebanon Correctional Institution and Milligan to Lima State Hospital. Milligan was moved the same day.

The papers ran the story of Milligan’s transfer to the Lima facility, applauding the move. The same day, Judge S. Farrell Jackson released his verdict, denying Milligan’s appeal to vacate his guilty plea. Regarding the former, Milligan’s lawyer filed a motion challenging Milligan’s transfer to a more restrictive facility on the grounds that it had been approved without due process or the opportunity for Milligan to confer with his attorney. Regarding the latter, he filed an appeal on the grounds that the judge had improperly weighed the testimony of a single medical professional, Dr. Brown, against multiple others. The writer attended the hearing about Milligan’s requested transfer back to Athens and met the Teacher again. At the hearing, the referee ruled against the transfer based on law alone and without hearing any testimony, despite Billy’s assertion that his physicians at Lima didn’t believe in his diagnosis and hence would not provide him with the right treatment.

The writer visited Milligan once at Lima, while he was still the Teacher, and Billy described what had happened with Lori and Marsha, explaining that he never touched them or consumed any alcohol with them. Billy promised to write until they met again at his next review hearing. After this visit, the writer was banned from Lima (and was even refused a meeting with Dr. Lewis Lindner, the clinical director) on the grounds that it was “not therapeutically advisable” (399) for Milligan to receive such publicity.

The writer attended Milligan’s hearing, during which the prosecution presented Dr. Frederick Milkie as a witness. Milkie had examined Milligan after he was transferred to Lima and expressed disbelief in Milligan’s diagnosis but admitted that Milligan didn’t trust him and would benefit from receiving care from someone whom he did trust. Milligan’s lawyer introduced Dr. Caul’s deposition into the record, which outlined “the essential requirements for a treatment program for an individual who is diagnosed as being a multiple personality” (401-02). These requirements included the psychiatrist in question having accepted the condition, having sufficient expertise to treat the condition or being supervised by those who did, and having continuing education in the subject. Dr. Caul also emphasized the need to identify, acknowledge, and ascertain the reason for the various alters’ existence, to work therapeutically with them all and bring them to some form of compromise among themselves, to make the patient aware of the extent of the condition and therapy, and to avoid antipsychotic medication because it can worsen fragmentation.

Dr. Harding, Dr. Caul, and Turner were all brought forward as witnesses, and they unanimously agreed on the requirements that Dr. Caul had laid out as not just optimal but the minimal requirements for treating “multiple personality disorder.” For the first time, Milligan took the stand himself, and he described how Chalmer’s abuse potentially led to his condition, recounted his first awareness of it at the Harding facility, and spoke of the trust he placed in Dr. Caul at Athens and the subpar treatment he was receiving at Lima, including the administration of antipsychotic medication.

Ten days after the hearing, the judge ruled that Milligan did in fact have “multiple personality disorder,” and because of the threat he posed to himself and society due to his condition, was to keep receiving treatment at the Lima facility. Some days after the hearing, the writer received news from Billy that he had been beaten by a hospital employee. The hospital initially denied this but reversed its stance after an attorney visited them and was outraged to see Milligan’s injuries.

Lima’s next monthly review of Milligan’s case revealed their clinical diagnosis of his illness: pseudo-psychopathic schizophrenia with dissociative episodes, and antisocial personality disorder, along with alcohol addiction and drug dependencies. Outraged that Lima was not treating Milligan for “multiple personality disorder,” as the court had directed, his attorneys filed a contempt-of-court motion against Lima and the Ohio State Department of Mental Health.

The writer received a letter from Milligan that reflected his despair: He detailed the inhumane treatment he was receiving at Lima, where attendants physically abused and drugged patients to keep them in check. The writer also received a letter from another patient at Lima, revealing that Milligan had been moved to a stronger ward and was being pressured by his attendants to fire his attorneys and stop writing the book. A couple months later, the writer received a third letter, penned in Serbo-Croatian, in an unfamiliar handwriting. Ragen wrote that no cure existed for Billy but that he was fine, as Ragen would rule and do everything he could for Billy: “Necessity knows no laws” (412).

The writer kept in touch with Milligan through letters and, in the months following his move to the Lima facility, remained hopeful that the court of appeals would overturn the decision. However, in April 1980, a second review hearing dismissed the contempt-of-court charges filed by Milligan’s lawyer and ordered Milligan to stay at Lima. In May of the same year, the “Milligan law” was passed, dictating that in cases of individuals declared not guilty by reason of insanity, the prosecutor could demand a hearing before the individual was moved to a less restrictive environment. The right to a review would occur every 180 days, instead of every 90 days, and would be open to the public and the media.

The writer continued to receive letters, some in other languages, like fluent Arabic, that revealed Milligan’s increasing fragmentation and despair. Some were written by Billy and others by alters, like Kevin, who asserted that Milligan was being harassed by the attendants; in response, Ragen planned to shut out the external world and turn consciousness inward.

In October 1980, Lima was phased out as a hospital and turned into a prison. Before Milligan could obtain a hearing to possibly return him to Athens, officials of the Department of Mental Health sent him to Dayton Forensic Center, a maximum-security facility with even more stringent measures. Arthur and Ragen put Billy to sleep before the move, worried that he might harm himself. Milligan deteriorated further, and less communication occurred among the various alters; even in moments of partial fusion, Milligan projected a self with no name.

At Milligan’s 180-day review hearing in April 1981, only Dr. Lindner, who had not seen Milligan in five months, testified, asserting that he should be kept in maximum security. Before Judge Flowers issued his verdict, the Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio ruled that the order for Milligan’s move to Lima was a judicial error; however, because a later hearing concurred with this order, the court ruled against returning Milligan to Athens. A month later, Judge Flowers ordered Milligan to stay at Dayton and continue to submit to treatment there at his own expense. Milligan’s lawyer immediately filed an appeal, challenging the Milligan law as unconstitutional and its application to Milligan “retroactively” as a violation of Ohio’s constitutional protection against such instances.

The writer and Milligan still talked on the phone, and the writer occasionally visited him at Dayton; different alters greeted him at different times. On one occasion, a nameless alter described feeling hollow; when he was not asleep or in control, he was in a place where other alters lay in coffins, some asleep and others waiting for something. The older selves had given up hope, but the younger ones still wanted a chance at life. David had named this place the “Dying Place.”

Milligan and the writer continued to keep up their communication. Milligan grew close to another patient’s sister, Tanda, who contacted the writer in July 1981, worried that Milligan had lost interest in life. When Tommy confessed that Arthur had decided on death by suicide, the writer convinced Milligan to consider requesting a transfer to the newly opened Central Ohio Regional Forensic Unit (CORFU). The recently appointed medical director there, Dr. Judyth Box, knew Dr. Caul, was interested in Milligan’s case, and had experience treating others with the same condition. Since CORFU was also a maximum-security institution, the transfer was granted without a hearing.

At CORFU, Milligan received the treatment he needed via Dr. Box, and the Teacher reappeared. However, Dr. Box’s decision to move Milligan into a ward with other patients who had the same condition received heavy criticism in the media, some accusing Dr. Box of giving Milligan preferential treatment. Dr. Box headed to Australia, her home, for a month’s leave. During this time, Tanda and the Teacher married, and shortly thereafter the Teacher began to notice changes, such as Milligan being taken off all medication and routinely strip-searched. Tanda and Milligan felt that this was “calculated harassment.”

When Dr. Box returned, her contract with the hospital was not renewed, and she was forced to leave. The Teacher fragmented, but luckily, Dr. Box’s replacement, Dr. John Davis, worked well with Milligan and his various alters. Tanda disappeared one night with all of Milligan’s money a couple months after their marriage; though initially heartbroken, Milligan handled the situation surprisingly well, impressing Dr. Davis. In April 1982, after a hearing in which Dr. Davis, among others, testified about why maximum-security facilities are obstructive to therapy for patients with “multiple personality disorder,” Judge Flowers ordered Milligan’s transfer back to Athens.

The writer met with Milligan frequently, usually encountering Tommy or Allen. No “co-consciousness” had existed among the different selves for a while, and though Allen could sometimes hear Arthur and Ragen’s voices, no one had been able to reach them; likewise, the Teacher had not returned. Dr. Caul worked on undoing the damage that the previous two years had done but had no idea how long it would take. Milligan’s return to Athens stirred up some controversy, but he was pleased to read a piece in the university student newspaper that asked the local community to give him another chance, as it was the least he deserved.