Billy Milligan

William Stanley Milligan (born 1955), known as Billy Milligan, was the subject of a highly publicized court case in the state of Ohio in the late 1970s. After having committed several felonies including armed robbery, he was arrested for three rapes on the Ohio State University campus. In the course of preparing his defense, psychologists determined that Milligan had Multiple Personality Disorder; ten personalities were identified. Examination by psychiatrists suggested that two of Milligan's personalities or "selves" had committed the crimes without the others being aware of it. Milligan pleaded an insanity defense, the first diagnosed multiple to do so.

Childhood

Milligan's mother Dorothy grew up in Ohio farm country, and lived in Circleville, Ohio, with her husband, Dick Jonas. They divorced, and Dorothy eventually moved to the Miami, Florida area, where she was a singer. There she began living with Johnny Morrison, a still-married, Jewish comedian.

Dorothy and Johnny had a son, Jim, in October 1953. In February 1955, in Miami Beach, they had a second son, William Morrison, later to be known as Billy Milligan. Dorothy and Johnny had a third child together, Kathy Jo, born in December 1956.

At this time, Johnny was 36 years old. According to biographer Daniel Keyes, "Meeting the medical expenses overwhelmed Johnny. He borrowed more, gambled more, drank more.... [He] was hopitalized for acute alcoholism and depression in ... 1958...." In what appeared to be an unsuccessful suicide attempt, according to Keyes, "[Dorothy] found him slumped over the table, half a bottle of Scotch and an empty bottle of sleeping pills on the floor." A few months after this attempt, on January 17, 1959, Johnny committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Dorothy took her children and moved away from Miami, eventually returning to Circleville, Ohio, where she remarried her ex-husband Dick Jonas. This marriage lasted about a year. In 1962, she met Chalmer Milligan (1927-1988). Chalmer's first wife Bernice divorced him on "grounds of gross neglect". He had a daughter Challa the same age as Billy, and another daughter who was a nurse. They married in Circleville, Ohio on October 27, 1963. (Keyes, p.135-139)

At his later trial, it would be Chalmer who would be blamed for abusing Billy and thereby causing some of the multiples, but Keyes makes it clear that Billy had multiples from a much earlier age, his first three (no name boy, Christene, and Shawn) evidently awakening by the time he was five years old.

One self who eventually came out, Arthur, developed the ability to sense the other selves and become a sort-of overseer. He would eventually develop the ability to control who came to consciousness and who went to sleep. Arthur would be in control in "safe" environments, but there were some personalities, for example Adalana, who had the power to take consciousness whenever they wanted without Arthur or any of the other personalities knowing.

Arrest

In the 1970s, Billy did some time at Ohio's Lebanon Correctional Institution, for felonies including rape and armed robbery. He was released in early 1977, but on parole. He was also on file as a sex offender. Three rapes on the Ohio State University campus in October led to his arrest. He was identified by one of his victims, from existing police mug shots of sex offenders, and from fingerprints lifted from another victim's car. (Keyes, p.6-7)

Since he had used a gun and guns were found in a search of his residence, he had violated his parole as well. He was indicted on "...three counts of kidnapping, three counts of aggravated robbery and four counts of rape." (Keyes, p.16)

In the course of preparing his defense, he underwent a psychological examination by Dr. Willis C. Driscoll who diagnosed acute schizophrenia. He was then examined by psychologist Dorothy Turner of Southwest Community Mental Health Center in Columbus. During this examination it was determined that he had the signs of Multiple Personality Disorder.

During this time, Adalana first made herself known to outsiders. She claimed she was the only self to have the ability to "wish" the others to go to sleep. She told Dorothy that it was she who had taken consciousness at the time of the rapes because she was "...desperate to be held and caressed and loved." (Keyes, p.54)

His public defenders, Gary Schweickart and Judy Stevenson, pleaded an insanity defense and he was committed "...until such time as he regains sanity."

Mental incarceration

He was sent to a series of state-run mental hospitals, such as the Athens Lunatic Asylum, where, by his report, he received very little help. While he was in these hospitals, Milligan displayed 10 selves. Among these were Arthur, a prim and proper Englishman, Allen, a con man and manipulator, Ragen Vadascovinich, a Yugoslavian communist who had committed the robberies in a kind of Robin Hood spirit, and Adalana, a nineteen-year-old lesbian who craved affection and who had supposedly committed the rapes.

Finally Milligan received treatment from psychiatrist David Caul, who identified an additional 14 selves and helped him and the other "selves" to communicate with each other, and to work out a method by which he could voluntarily integrate all of his selves. However, when Milligan maintained this mindset for any protracted length of time, he reported that the talents his selves possessed as individuals were diminished. In interviews, Milligan still refers to this situation with the words "The whole was less than the sum of the parts."[1] Caul's famous quote on treating multiples is "It seems to me that after treatment you want a functional unit, be it a corporation, a partnership, or a one-owner business."

Release

Released in 1988 after a decade in mental hospitals, Milligan now lives in California where he owns Stormy Life Productions and makes films. He still claims to be multiple. He is supervising a film about his life, The Crowded Room. As of 2007, this film is still in development.

Daniel Keyes authored a biography called The Minds of Billy Milligan. Milligan picked Keyes to author because several of his "selves" had read Flowers for Algernon, another Keyes book, and said Keyes would be perfect. Another book by Keyes, The Milligan Wars, has been published in Japan, but not yet in the United States, at first due to Milligan's ongoing lawsuit against the State of Ohio for the allegedly inadequate treatment he received in Ohio facilities. The book will be published when the film is released.

The personalities

The initial list of ten, with their ages, paraphrased here from Daniel Keyes's book:

1. William Stanley Milligan "Billy", age 26, the core personality.
2. Arthur, 22. The Englishman
3. Ragen Vadascovinich, 23. The keeper of hate.
4. Allen, 18. The con man.
5. Tommy, 16. The escape artist.
6. Danny, 14. The frightened one.
7. David, 8. The keeper of pain.
8. Christene, 3. The corner child
9. Christopher, 13. Obedient but troubled
10. Adalana, 19. The lesbian

There were also personalities classed as "Undesirables" by the personality in charge. These personalities were deemed to have unworthy qualities and would not hold Billy's consciousness.

1. Philip, 20. The thug.
2. Kevin, 20. The planner.
3. Walter, 22. The Australian.
4. April, 19. The bitch.
5. Samuel, 18. The wandering Jew.
6. Mark, 16. The workhorse.
7. Steve, 21. The perpetual imposter.
8. Lee, 20. The comedian.
9. Jason, 13. The pressure valve.
10. Robert, 17. The daydreamer.
11. Shawn, 4. The deaf one.
12. Martin, 19. The snob.
13. Timothy, 15.

There is also the personality known as The Teacher, from whom the other personalities all learned their specialities, and who is the integration of all other personalities and the one true Billy.

External links

• The Crowded Room at IMDb, stating scheduled release in 2008
• The Minds of Billy Milligan (ISBN 0-553-26381-1) by Daniel Keyes.
• A Statement by Billy Milligan in 1996.