CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

(1)

On Monday, September 17, the day of the hearing, as the writer walked down the corridor of AIT and saw Billy waiting for him, he could tell by the knowing smile, the clear-eyed look and nod, that it was the Teacher. They gripped each others hands.

“Good to see you, ” the writer said. “Its been a long while.” “A lots been going on.”

“Lets talk privately before Goldsberry and Thompson get here.”

They stepped into a small conference room, and the Teacher told the writer of the shooting, of unfusing, of Allen leasing a new sports car so that he could take off for Lexington to be treated by Dr. Wilbur as soon as the judge reversed the guilty plea.

“Who’s been talking to me, pretending to be you in the last month while you were gone? ”

“It was Allen, ” he said. “I’m sorry. Arthur knew you’d be hurt to find out that I’d unfused. Normally he would not have concerned himself with a person’s emotions. I can only assume he reacted like that because his judgment was impaired by the shock of the shooting.”

They talked until Goldsberry and Thompson arrived, and then they all drove to the Fairfield County courthouse in Lancaster.

Goldsberry and Thompson had provided the court with depositions from Drs. George Harding, Cornelia Wilbur, Stella Karolin and David Caul, and Psychologist Dorothy Turner, all agreeing that there was “a reasonable medical certainty” that

Billy Milligan had been a mentally ill multiple personality when the roadside-rest assaults and the Gray Drug Store robbery were committed in December 1974 and January 1975. They agreed that he had probably not been able, at that time, to assist his attorney, George Kellner, in his own defense.

The Fairfield County prosecutor, Mr. Luse, called only Dr. Harold T. Brown, who stated on the witness stand that he had treated Billy at the age of fifteen and had him sent to the Columbus State Hospital for three months. He would, he said, in the light of current knowledge, have changed his diagnosis from hysterical neurosis with passive-aggressive features to a new diagnosis of dissociative disorder with possible multiple personality. However, Brown told the court, he had been sent by the prosecuting attorney to interview Billy in Athens, and during that visit, Billy Milligan seemed to have knowledge of the acts he had committed. Brown said Milligan was probably not really a multiple personality, since multiple personalities were not supposed to have knowledge of the actions of the alter egos.

When they left the courtroom, Goldsberry and Thompson were optimistic and Billy was elated. He was sure Judge Jackson would take the testimony of four highly regarded psychiatrists and a psychologist over the testimony of Dr. Brown.

The judge told a reporter he would make his decision within two weeks.

On September 18, seeing Billy’s agitation after his return from Lancaster and aware of his fear of being shot at again, Dr. Caul allowed him a furlough. Since Billy realized he would be a target at his sisters house as well as at the hospital, it was understood he would stay at the Hocking Valley Motor Lodge in nearby Nelsonville. He would take his easel, paints and canvas to work undisturbed.

He checked in on Tuesday under a false name and tried to relax, but the tension was too strong. He heard noises while he painted. After searching the room and the hall, he decided it was in his head—his own voices. He tried not to listen, concentrating on his brush strokes, but they were still talking. It wasn’t Ragen or Arthur; he’d have recognized their accents immediately. It had to be the undesirables. Now what was wrong with him? He couldn’t work, he couldn’t sleep, he was afraid to go back to Kathy’s or to Athens.

He phoned Mike Rupe on Wednesday and asked him to come out. When Rupe got there and saw how nervous Billy was, he phoned Dr. Caul.

“You’re on night duty anyway, ” Caul said. “Stay with him tonight and bring him back tomorrow.”

With Mike Rupe there, Billy relaxed. They had a drink at the bar, and Billy talked of his hope of being treated by Sybil’s physician.

“I’ll check myself into a hospital for a couple of weeks until Dr. Wilbur thinks I can stay in an apartment by myself. I think I can, because even while I’m having trouble, I’m still able to function. Then I’ll start my treatment and follow her guidelines.”

Rupe listened as he spoke about his plans for the future, about the new life ahead of him if Judge Jackson wiped the slate clean in Lancaster.

They talked through the night, fell asleep in the early hours and, after a late breakfast, drove back to the hospital Thursday morning.

Back on the ward, Billy sat in the lobby and thought about how he couldn’t do anything right anymore. He felt like a dunce because he was losing all the things his other personalities had given him: Arthur’s intelligence, Ragens strength, Allen’s smooth talking, Tommy’s electronics knowledge. He was feeling more and more stupid, pressures were building and building. The stress and the fear were getting to him. Noises were amplified, colors became unbearably intense. He wanted to go into his room, slam the door, and scream and scream and scream...

The following day, Wanda Pancake was finishing her lunch in the coffee room when a friend jumped out of his chair and ran to the window. Wanda turned and peered through the rain to see what he was staring at.

“I saw somebody, ” he said, pointing. “A guy in a tan trench coat ran across the Richland Avenue bridge and then went under it.”

“Where? ” She stood on tiptoe, stretching her short, stocky frame, but all she could see through the rain-streaked window was a car parked on the bridge. The driver got out, looked over the side of the bridge wall, went back to his car and then to the wall, looking down as if watching something or someone below.

Wanda had an odd sinking feeling. “I’d better go check where Billy is.”

She went up and down the ward, asking staff and patients, but no one had seen him. She checked his room. His tan trench coat was gone from his closet.

Charlotte Johnson, the unit supervisor, came to the nurses’ station to say she’d been told on the phone that another employee, who’d been uptown, had seen Billy on Richland Avenue. Dr. Caul emerged from his office; he’d gotten a call about Billy being on the bridge.

Everyone began shouting at once. They didn’t want Security to go after him because they knew the uniforms would upset him.

“I’ll go, ” Wanda said, grabbing her coat.

Clyde Barnhart of Security drove her out to the Richland Bridge. She climbed down and looked under the bridge among the pipes. Then she walked along the riverbank, peering in all directions. Nothing. When she came back, she saw the driver of the parked car and was surprised he was still there.

“Did you see a guy in a tan trench coat? ” she asked.

He pointed to the nearby university Convocation Center.

The security cruiser picked'her up and drove her to the modem brick-and-glass building shaped like a birthday cake with a dome.

“There he is, ” Security Officer Barnhart said, pointing to the third-level concrete walkway that circled the building.

“Wait here, ” she told him. “I’d better handle him myself.”

“Don’t go inside the building with him. Don’t be alone with him, ” Barnhart said.

She ran up one of the ramps and saw him trying door after door to get into the building.

“Billy! ” she shouted, running from the ramp to the walkway. “Wait for me! ”

He didn’t answer.

She tried other names: “Danny! Allen! Tommy! ”

He ignored her, moving quickly around the walkway, trying one door after another until finally he found an open one and disappeared inside. She’d never been inside the Convocation

Center. Frightened, not knowing what to expect of him or why he was here, she raced in and caught up to him as he started up a steep staircase. She stayed at the foot of the stairs.

“Come on down, Billy.”

“The hell with you. I ain’t Billy.”

She’d never seen him chew gum before, but now he was chomping away hard and fast.

“Who are you? ” she asked.

“Steve.”

“What are you doing here? ”

“Shit, what the hell does it look like? I want to get to the top of the building.”

“Why? ”

“To jump.”

“Come on down, Steve, and let’s talk about it.” •

He refused to come down, though she tried to reason with him. It was no use. She believed he was determined to kill himself. She noticed how different he was: cocky now, his voice higher, speech faster, macho arrogance in his expression and tone.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom, ” he said, and went through the lavatory door.

She ran quickly to the exit and stepped out on the circular walk to see if Clyde was still there with the security cruiser. He wasn’t. He’d gone. When she got back inside, Steve came out of the mens room and disappeared through another door. She tried to follow, but he locked it from the inside.

She found a wall phone, dialed the hospital and asked for Dr. Caul.

“I don’t know what to do, ” she said. “He’s Steve and talking about killing himself.”

“Calm him down, ” Caul said. “Tell him everything’s going to be okay. Tell him it’s not going to be as bad as he thinks. He’ll be able to go to Kentucky for treatment with Dr. Wilbur. Tell him to come on back.”

She hung up and went back to the door, banging and calling, “Steve! Open this door! Dr. Caul says you’ll be able to go to Kentucky! ”

Seconds later, a student coming through unlocked the door. Wanda discovered it led to a narrow circular corridor. She stuck her head into offices and lounges as she ran, feeling like someone on a nightmare merry-go-round. Can’t find him. Keep looking. Keep going.

When she passed two students talking, she shouted, “Did you see a guy go by here? Six feet tall. Tan trench coat. Dripping wet.”

One of them pointed ahead. “He went thataway...”

She kept running along the circular corridor, checking exit doors to the outer walk from time to time, in case he’d gone back outside. Finally, through one exit, she saw him on the outside walkway.

“Steve! ” she shouted. “Wait a minute! I’ve gotta talk to you! ” “Ain’t nothin’ to talk about.”

She circled him, wedging herself between him and the concrete balustrade, to keep him from jumping. “Dr. Caul says to come back.”

“Fuck that fat-bellied sonofabitch! ”

“He says things aren’t as bad as you think they are.”

“Shit they ain’t.”

He was pacing back and forth, chewing his gum furiously. “Dr. Caul says you’ll be able to go to Kentucky and Dr. Wilbur can help you.”

“I don’t trust any of them shrinks. They’re trying to tell me that bullshit about I got multiple personality. Tliat’s goddamn crazy. They’re the ones that’s nuts.”

He stripped off his wet trench coat, plastered it against a large windowpane and drew his fist back to smash it. She dove for him, caught his arm and hung on to keep him from swinging. She knew he wanted the glass to cut himself with, though it was too thick to smash. He’d probably just break his fist. But she clung to him and he fought to shake her off.

As they grappled, she tried to talk him into going back, but there was no reasoning with him. Drenching wet and freezing, she finally said, “I’m tired of it. I’m giving you a choice: Either you come back with me right now, or I’ll kick you in the fucking balls.”

“You wouldn’t, ” he said.

“I will, ” she said, still holding his arm. “I’m going to count to three. If you don’t quit and start walking with me back to the hospital, I’m going to kick you.”

“Well, ” he said, “I don’t hit females.”

“One... two...” She drew her knee back.

He crossed his legs to protect himself. “You would, wouldn’t you? ”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m gonna do it, ” he said. “I’m going to the top.” “No, you’re not. I’m not letting you.”

He struggled against her, then broke loose and ran to the concrete balustrade. It was three flights to the ground. When be reached the edge, she rushed him, got one arm around his neck and the other through his belt, and pulled him back igainst the concrete, tearing his shirt as they wrestled.

Then she saw something snap in him. He wilted and dropped to the floor, his eyes glazed, and she knew it was iomeone else. He began to cry, shivering and shaking. Scared, > he thought. She knew who he was.

Wanda hugged him and told him there was nothing to worry ibout. “Everything’s going to be okay, Danny.”

“I’m gonna get a whipping, ” he whined. “My shoes is untied md all muddy, my pants and my hair is wet. My clothes is nuddy and all messed up.”

“You want to go for a walk with me? ”

“Yeah, ” he said.

She picked his coat up from the floor, put it on him and guided him around the walkway toward the front of the build-ng. Through the trees, she could see the hospital up on the lill. He must have seen this round building often from up.here. The security cruiser had returned. It was parked in the ot below, doors open, no one inside.

“You want to go sit in the car with me? Let’s get out of the *ain.”

He hung back.

“It’s okay. It’s Security. Clyde Barnhart is driving. You get ilong okay with him. You like him, don’t you? ”

Danny nodded and started into the back seat, but when he; aw the wire protection frame that made the back look like a iage, he drew away, trembling.

“Okay, ” Wanda said, understanding what was bothering lim. “We can both sit up front and wait for Clyde to come and Irive us.”

He slipped inside and sat. quietly beside her, looking dazed it his wet trousers and muddy shoes.

Wanda left the doors open, but reached over to turn the headlights on as a signal. A short while later Clyde came down the ramp of the Convocation Center with Norma Dishong.

“I went back to the hospital and got her, ” Clyde Barnhart explained. “We were inside looking for you and Bill.”

Wanda said, “This is Danny. He’s all right now.”

(2)

On Tuesday, September 25, Nurse Pat Perry watched Billy talk to Gus Holston in the lounge. Holston had been admitted a few weeks earlier; he and Billy knew each other from Lebanon. Lori and Marsha walked by, flirting with the two young men. Lori, who had never made any attempt to hide her attraction for Billy, now pretended to be interested in Holston to make Billy jealous. Nurse Perry, who was Loris case manager, knew the girl had been all over Billy from the time he’d come to Athens. A pretty, not too bright young woman, she followed him around, leaving him notes and telling the staff of the things she and Billy were going to do someday. She had even spread the rumor that she and Billy were eventually going to be married.

Billy, for his part, never really paid much attention to her. His grandest gesture had been to give both Lori and Marsha fifty dollars earlier in the week when they told him they were broke. In exchange for the money, they picked up his hug your child today bumper stickers from the printer and passed them out downtown.

Eileen McClellan, Billy’s afternoon case manager, was off that day, and her case buddy, Katherine Gillott, looked after him. Shortly after the grandmotherly Gillott came on duty, Billy asked her if he could go for a walk.

“We’ll have to include Dr. Caul on this decision, ” she said, “because I’m not going to make it.”

Billy waited in the TV room while she consulted with Dr. Caul, who decided to talk to Billy. After a few questions about his mood, they both agreed he could go out for a walk with Gus Holston.

Billy and Gus came back within half an hour, then went out for a second walk. When Billy returned the second time, about six o’clock, Gillott was busy with a new admission, but she heard him say, “That girl was screaming.”

She knew it wasn’t Billy talking. She recognized Davids voice.

“What did you say? ”

“She’s gonna get hurt.”

Gillott followed him down the hall. “What are you talking about? ”

“There was a girl. I could hear a girl screaming somewhere when I was outside.”

“What girl? ”

“I don’t know. There were two of them. One of the girls told Gus to bring me back because I was in the way.”

Gillott smelled his breath to see if he’d been drinking, but there was no indication that he had.

A few minutes later the downstairs switchboard called for her. Mrs. Gillott went down to see a security officer bring Marsha in. She could smell the liquor on Marsha’s breath as she brought her upstairs and took ner to her room.

“Where’s Lori? ” Gillott asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Where’ve you been? ”

“I don’t know.”

“You have been drinking, haven’t you? ”

Marsha hung her head. She was sent to Ward 1, the women’s maximum-security ward.

In the meantime Billy switched from David to Danny. He seemed disturbed when he saw Marsha alone, without Lori, and suddenly he took off out of the building to go find the missing Lori. Gillott went puffing after him. By the time she had caught up to him behind the Beacon School cottage, Security Officer Glenn was bringing Lori in. She’d been throwing up and had been lying on the grass, her face in the vomit, Glen told Gillott. “She could have strangled, ” he said.

Gillott could see that Danny was worried about the women. She heard people in the corridor whispering the word “rape, ” but she felt that neither of the young men had been out long enough to do anything to either Lori or Marsha. She just didn’t believe it. When she left at eleven that night, everything seemed calm, both women in WaTd 1 and Milligan and Holston off in their rooms asleep.

When Pat Perry came on duty at seven the next morning, rumors had spread over the ward and the hospital. *The two young women had been found drunk and unconscious out on the hill. Loris clothes had been ripped. Some said she’d complained of having been raped; others said there had been no mention of rape. Billy and Gus Holston had been out for a walk at the same time, and suspicion pointed to them. But almost everyone on the Admissions and Intensive Treatment ward agreed that there could not have been a rape.

The state highway patrol was called to investigate, and they requested that AIT be locked temporarily to ensure that all the males on the ward be available for questioning. Dr. Caul spoke to several of the staff; Billy and Holston weren’t awake yet. The question was, Who would tell Billy about the accusations being made against him and Holston? Pat Perry could see he didn’t want to do it himself. Everyone else refused. Perry hadn’t been on duty the day last spring when Ragen exploded, threatening the attendants with the broken drinking glass, but others who had been feared the same violence might happen when Billy heard the news.

Dr. Caul had the ward door locked before he talked to either of them. Holston was the first one up, and Dr. Caul told him what he was being accused of. Then he went into Billy’s room and told him the same thing.

Both young men seemed confused at first and hurt at the accusations, but as the morning wore on, they became more agitated, more frightened. They spoke of people coming after them to take them to Lima, of the FBI out to get them, of being sent back to Lebanon.

Throughout the day, the staff tried to keep them calm. The staff was angry too. They didn’t believe it at all. Wanda Pancake and Pat Perry kept assuring Holston and Billy that no one was coming to take them away. But they both knew they weren’t talking to Billy. It was one of the others. Wanda felt sure it was Steve.

Pat Perry gave Billy a lot of Amytal that day, trying to keep him under control; at one point he took a nap and seemed all right. But by two in the afternoon, both young men were agitated again. Billy was switching from Steve to David, whining and crying; then he’d be tough again, and he and Holston would pace up and back, edgy about anyone walking near them. Every time the phone rang, Billy jumped and said, “They’re coming after me.” i

Billy and Holston moved to the back of the lobby near the locked rear door leading to the fire escape. They pulled the tables and chairs around them to form a barricade, then took off their belts, wrapping them around their fists.

“I don’t want any men coming towards us, ” Steve said, “or we’ll bust out the back door.” He picked up a chair in his left hand, holding it like a lion tamer. The staff realized they could no longer handle the situation. They called for a “Code Green.”

Pat Perry heard it over the loudspeaker system. She expected the usual wait and then to see eight or ten guards and attendants from other wards come throught the door of the ward to help out.

“My God! ” she gasped as the door burst open. There was a mob of men—security guards, attendants, aides, supervisors, men from health care and from psychology who had no business there, men from geriatrics who would never come on a regular Code Green. There were at least thirty of them. It was, she thought, like trapping an animal. As if everyone had just been waiting for the signal.

She and Wanda stood close to Billy and Holston, who made no attempt to touch or harm them. But as the wave of men approached, the two patients brandished chairs and gestured menacingly with their belt-wrapped fists.

“I’m not going to Lima! ” Steve shouted. “Just when everything was going all right, I get blamed for something I didn’t do! Now I’ll never get my chance. Now I’ve got no more hopes.”

“Billy, listen to me, ” Caul said. “This isn’t the way to handle it. You’ve got to settle down.”

“If you come after us, we’ll bust the door and get the car and leave.”

“You’re wrong, Billy. This behavior isn’t going to help you. You’ve been accused of this thing and it might come out bad. But this isn’t the way to behave. We’re not going to put up with it.”

Billy refused to listen.

Dave Malawista, a senior psychologist, tried to reason with him: “Come on, Billy. Have we ever let anything happen to you before? We’ve invested so much time in you, do you think! we’re going to let them take you away from us over this? We twant to help you, not make things worse for you. The staff

doesn’t believe all that stuff. We’ve documented your charts and the girls’ charts as well. The time is accounted for. The investigation should go in your favor. ”

Billy put the chair down and came out of the comer. He calmed down and the men left the ward. But Billy soon began whining and crying again. And Holston was still acting out his hostility. He ranted and raved about being taken away, and that was upsetting Billy even more.

“We won’t get our chance, ” Holston said. “I’ve been accused unjustly before. You just wait, they’ll sneak up here without tellin’ us. We’ll be whisked off and never seen again.”

The staff was more on edge than Pat had ever seen before. They sensed that something was going to happen.

The three o’clock shift took over, and the younger women were replaced by the elderly Eileen McClellan and Katherine Gillott. Mrs. Gillott had been surprised to hear about the rape investigation. Forewarned by the morning shift, she tried to keep the two young men calm. But as the afternoon wore on, their nervous glances and movements began again, the talk of being interrogated and taken off to prison, the threats of ripping out phones if anyone tried to call security, of busting out the fire-escape door if anyone came after them..

“I don’t want to have it end this way, ” Billy said. “I’d rather be dead than have it end this way.”

Gillott was sitting talking to Billy when he asked for some Amytal. She consented. He went to the nurses’ station to get his medication, and Gillott turned her attention to another patient.

Then she heard the back door being smashed open. Gillott saw Gus Holston and Billy Milligan running down the fire escape. The nurse on duty called the second Code Green of the day.

A short while later one of the nursing staff phoned for Katherine Gillott. Would she come down to the second floor? They had Billy and he was asking for her. When she got there, she saw that four men had Billy pinned to the floor in front of the elevator.

“Katherine, ” he said, “help me. Don’t let them hurt me. If they tie me up, Chalmer’ll come.”

“No, Danny. Chalmer isn’t going to be here. You may have to be in a room by yourself. You left the hospital. You busted out and you left, and now we’ve got to do this to you.”

He sobbed, “Would you ask them to let me up? ”

“You can let go of him, ” she told the men.

The officers hesitated, not knowing what to expect.

“He’ll be all right, ” Gillott said. “He’ll go with me. Won’t you, Danny? ”

“Yes.”

She led him to Ward 5, into the seclusion room, staying to take his personal effects. He wouldn’t give her his necklace with an arrowhead on it.

“Better empty your pockets now. Give me your wallet so I can put it away. ” She saw he was carrying a lot of money.

One of the Ward 5 attendants, impatient to shut Milligan in, shouted, “Come on outta there, Katherine, or I’ll lock you in with him.”

She understood that they were scared of the boy.

A short while after she returned to AIT, a nurse called to say something was going on with Milligan in the seclusion room. He had put his mattress over the observation window, preventing the staff from looking in, and they were afraid to unlock the door to see what he was doing. Would she come down again?

She took a male attendant with her—someone Billy knew— and called through the seclusion-room door: “This is Katherine. I’m coming in to check on you. Don’t be afraid.”

They went in. Billy was making a gurgling, choking sound. The arrowhead was gone from his necklace; the chain lay broken on the floor.

Dr. Sammi Michaels ordered Billy transferred to a room with a bed, but when the staff went in to get him, he fought. It took several men to move him.

Mrs. Gillott stayed with him in the new room. She gave Billy several cups of water, and in a few minutes he spit out the arrowhead. The nurse gave him an injection, and Gillott talked with him for a while longer, assuring him she’d be back, telling him to get some rest. Then she went back to her ward, thinking about how very frightened he was.

The following morning, when Wanda, Pat Perry and Mike Rupe came on duty, they learned that Billy and Holston had been taken to Ward 5. Though Rupe, now on the morning shift, wanted to visit Billy, word was sent up by Ward 5 that the staff of AIT was not to visit him. He was theirs now.

When Billy’s sister, Kathy, called, she was told there had been trouble and that Billy had been placed on the male maximum-security ward. Billy would not be allowed to leave to attend her wedding the next day.

The story was leaked to the newspapers, and the following appeared in the Columbus Citizen-Journal on October 3, 1979:

Milligan Financed Rum Party, Patrol Will Reveal—Stinziano By Eric Rosenman

William S. Milligan, the alleged multiple personality rapist, was one of four patients who engaged in a “rum and Coke party” on the grounds of the Athens Mental Health Center last week, a state legislator claimed Wednesday.

Rep. Mike Stinziano of Columbus said a secret Ohio Highway Patrol investigation will conclude Milligan provided two women patients with money to buy rum and then the women, Milligan and a second male patient held a “rum and Coke” party....

The representative said the story indicates that “there appears to be little control over activities at the center.”

“As I understand it, the report will not be able to prove the women were raped, ” Stinziano said Wednesday. “But it will say the two women were given money by Milligan to buy liquor, went off the grounds to make the purchase and then returned with rum...”

Last Friday, Lt. Richard Wilcox, head of the patrol’s investigation section, said tests to determine whether the women had been raped or had been intoxicated were incomplete and would not be made public until the investigation was over.

Stinziano said he was certain of his sources who supplied the tale of the party.

The same day, the writer was permitted to visit Ward 5. Milligan did not recognize him until the writer prompted him.

“Oh, yeah, ” he said with a dazed expression, “you’re the guy who’s been talking to Billy.”

“Who are you? ” the writer asked.

“I don’t know.”

“What’s your name? ”

“I don’t think I have one.”

They spoke for a while, though Milligan had no awareness of what had happened to him. There were long silences as the writer waited for one of the personalities to come forward with information. After a while the nameless one said, “They won’t let him paint anymore. There’s two paintings, and somebody’ll destroy them if they’re here. You oughtta take them in case you need them for the book.”

Milligan left the conference room, then returned with two canvases, one an unfinished, unsigned gloomy night scene with black trees silhouetted against a dark-blue sky, a black barn and a curving path. The other was a richly colored landscape, signed “Tommy.”

“Are you Tommy? ” the writer asked.

“I don’t know who I am.”

(3),

The next morning, Alan Goldsberry was notified to appear in Athens County Common Pleas Court before Judge Roger J. Jones. Assistant Attorney General David Belinky had filed a motion on behalf of the state of Ohio to transfer Milligan to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Gus Holston was being sent back to Lebanon.

Goldsberry appealed to Judge Jones to allow him time to confer with his client. “It’s my belief that Mr. Milligan has a right to know about this motion and has a right under the second paragraph of 5122.20 to at least be advised that he can request a hearing immediately. Since he hasn’t been given this notice, I want to request for him that he have a right to a hearing with him being present. I don’t think these proceedings give him that opportunity.”

The judge disagreed, and Belinky called as his only witness Russell Cremeans, chief of Security and Safety at the Athens Mental Health Center.

“Mr. Cremeans, are you aware of any physical assaults that have occurred between Mr. Milligan and any of the personnel at the hospital within the most recent events? ”

“Yes. I have reports from... from an individual, M. Wilson, who is an aide at the hospital, and also the officer on duty that night, Officer Clyde Barnhart. The date of this incident was September 26, 1979.... I’m concerned about being able to contain Mr. Milligan on the locked unit where he is right now.”

“Would you, as a security officer and chief of Security, have severe reservations whether... the facility could adequately hold Mr. Milligan if he had intentions of leaving the grounds? ”

“I have serious reservations whether the institution would be able to hold him if he actually wanted to leave, yes.”

“Do you have firsthand knowledge as to what happened on the night of the escape attempt? ” Belinky asked.

“Yes, I do. Mr. Milligan and another patient, Mr. Gus Holston, proceeded to break the door down on our AIT, which is a receiving hospital unit where they were being housed. A chair was used to break the lock off the fire escape door, and the two proceeded down the fire escape... in an A.W.O.L. attempt.... The two, Milligan and Holston, proceeded to the parking lot, where Milligan had a vehicle which was brought back from an A.W.L., proceeded to unlock the car and enter the car...”

Milligan, he said, was prevented from entering the car, and Milligan and Holston then ran over the hill. Three men were able to subdue Milligan and take him back to Ward 5.

After hearing Chief Cremeans’ evidence, Judge Jones granted the motion of the attorney general’s office that Milligan be sent to Lima.

At two o’clock, on October 4, 1979, Billy was handcuffed and belt-shackled, and with no time to say good-by to anyone but Dr. Caul, he was driven 180 miles away to Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

W,.

Columbus Dispatch, October 5, 1979:

Top Officials Seen Spurring Milligan Transfer By Robert Ruth

Direct intervention by top state mental health officials prompted the transfer Thursday of multi-personality rapist William S. Milligan to Lima State Hospital, a maximum security facility, a reliable source reports.

The transfer order came after top officials in the Ohio Mental Health and Mental Retardation s Columbus headquarters made several phone calls Wednesday to the Athens Mental Health Center where Milligan had been confined for 10 months, the source said.

Mental Health Director Timothy Moritz made at least one of the calls, the source added.... Two state legislators—Reps. Mike Stinziano D-Columbus, and Claire Mr. Ball, Jr., R-Athens—repeatedly have complained about what they charged was lenient treatment given the rapist.

Thursday both Stinziano and Ball praised the decision to transfer Milligan to the Lima facility, but Ball added, “I only wonder what took so long? ”

Stinziano said he will continue to keep a close watch on Milligans case to ensure Milligan is not released from a maximum security facility until he is no longer a threat to society.

The day after Milligans transfer, Judge S. Farrell Jackson of the common pleas court in Lancaster filed his ruling on Milligans motion to vacate his guilty plea for the Gray Drug Store robbery:

This court is of the opinion that the burden of proof as to the matter of the insanity of William S. Milligan on March 27, 1975, is upon the defendant, William S. Milligan... After a careful, analysis of all the evidence, this court is not convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that on March 27, 1975 that William Stanley Milligan was insane, was unable to counsel in his own defense or was unable to understanding^ enter a plea of guilty to the charges and, therefore, there has been no showing of a manifest injustice arid the motion of William Stanley Milligan to withdraw his pleas of guilty is denied.

Goldsberry filed an appeal with the Ohio Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that Judge Jackson had improperly considered the weight of the evidence—balancing the opinions of four eminently qualified psychiatrists and a psychologist against the solitary opinion of Dr. Brown.

He also filed a motion in the city of Lima, Ohio, at the Allen County Courthouse, charging that his client had not been given an opportunity to confer with his attorney and that he had been transferred to a more restrictive facility without due process.

(2)

A week later, at the Allen County Courthouse, where the referee would hear Goldsberry s motion to return Milligan to Athens, the writer saw Billy in handcuff's for the first time. It was the Teacher, and he smiled sheepishly.

Alone in the room with Goldsberry and the writer, the Teacher spoke of his treatment at Lima during the past week. Dr. Lindner, the clinical director, had diagnosed him as a pseudo-psychopathic schizophrenic, and he prescribed Stelazine, one of the psychotropic drugs in the same family as Thorazine, the drug that made the splitting so much worse.

They talked until the bailiff informed them the referee, was ready to begin. Goldsberry and Billy asked that the writer be allowed to sit at the table with them, across from Assistant Attorney General David Belinky and his witness for the state of Ohio, Dr. Lewis Lindner, a thin man with a pinched face, metal-rimmed glasses and a Vandyke beard. He looked across the room at Milligan with an undisguised sneer.

After several more minutes of conferences between the attorneys and the referee, the referee made the decision—on the basis of law only, with no testimony—that since Judge Jones had ruled the appropriate place for hospitalization was Lima State Hospital, and since by the end of November Milligan would have the right to present evidence at his ninety-day review, the hearing was moot. The court would decide in six weeks whether or not Milligan was still mentally ill, and whether or not to keep him at Lima.

The Teacher addressed the court: “I know I have to wait before I can resume my treatment, and my doctors have told me for the past two years, ‘You have to want help from the people who can give it to you. You have to be able to totally trust your physician, your psychiatrist, your treatment team.’ I just want the speediness of the court to help me resume my treatment properly.”

“Mr. Milligan, ” the referee said. “Let me make a statement to you on that. I think you’re assuming an incorrect fact, that you can’t receive treatment at Lima State Hospital.”

“Well, ” said Billy, looking directly at Dr. Lindner, “you have to be able to want treatment, want help from a person before you can receive it. You have to be trusting of that person. I don’t know these doctors. I don’t trust them by what they’ve told me already. My physicians have stated they don’t believe in my illness, and that scares me to go back and wait where I’m not going to be treated. Well, I’ll receive a treatment, but for another mental illness. My doctors have made it clear they do not believe in multiple personality.”

“That is a medical issue, ” said the referee, “that we’re not ready to argue today, although your counsel may present that at a review hearing and it will be properly considered as to whether or not Lima is the appropriate place.”

Alter the hearing, the writer and Goldsberry visited Billy at Lima. They passed through metal detectors, had their briefcases searched, went through two sets of barred doors and were escorted by an attendant to the visitors’ room. A short while later, a guard brought Billy in. He was still the Teacher. During the two-hour visit he told the writer about the events at Athens leading up to the investigation of the alleged rape, and he described his transfer to Lima.

“The two girls were sitting in the hall one night, talking about how they didn’t have jobs or money. I felt sorry for them. I’m a sucker, I guess. So I told them if they would pass out some bumper stickers for me, I would pay them a salary. They got half of the bumper stickers passed out. I paid them.

“Four days later, they disappeared in the afternoon. They wanted to get smashed. They went over to the state liquor store and bought a bottle of rum.

“I was restricted to the unit. I could leave only if I was escorted by a staff member or by another patient who signed out for a walk, if he’d let me go with him. Okay, Gus Holston and I went outside. Katherine timed it. She said we weren’t outside more than nine or ten minutes. We went out and walked around the building. When we went out there, I was uncomfortable because I was outside. I was defused at the time.”

“Who walked out? ” the writer asked.

“It was Danny. Holston was kind of apprehensive at this point—he didn’t know what to make of me. He didn’t know what my problem was. As we were walking around the building, we heard the girls back there scream out to Gus and, well, they called me ‘Billy. ’ When they got up to us, they were very, very intoxicated. One had—I think it was—a bottle of Pepsi. It looked clearer than usual, so it must have been cut. We could smell booze all over them.”

The Teacher described how one of the girls, realizing he was Danny and not Billy, leaned close to Gus and said, “Take the nuisance back up and come join us.”

Gus told them he couldn’t, but before he and Danny could pull away, one of the girls threw up all over Gus’s shirt, and some of it got on Danny’s trouser leg.

Danny jumped back, nauseated, and covered his face with his hands. Gus shouted at the girls, cursing them. He and Danny turned and headed back toward the building. The girls followed behind them a short way, giggling and cursing them, then headed up the brick road toward the cemetery.

That was all there was to it, the Teacher said. He couldn’t be sure about Holston, but he, himself, had never touched either of the girls.

The eight days in Lima had been hell, he said. “I’ll write down some of the things that happened to me here. I’ll send them to you.”

When the visit was over, the Teacher went through the metal detector to be checked for contraband or anything the visitors might have brought in. He turned to the writer and waved good-by. “I’ll see you at the end of November, at my next review hearing. But in the meantime, I’ll write to you.”

The writer tried to make an appointment to speak with Dr. Lindner, but the response on the phone was hostile: “I believe it’s not therapeutically desirable for him to have all this publicity. ”

“We’re not the ones seeking the publicity, ” the writer said.

“I don’t wish to discuss it any further, ” Lindner said, and hung up.

When the writer asked to join a group tour of the Lima State Hospital facility the day before the November hearing, it was granted at first by the public relations department. The day before the tour, however, he received a call telling him that his visit had been canceled by Dr. Lindner and Superintendent Hubbard, and that the Security Department had been told the writer was to be barred from the hospital grounds permanently.

When the writer inquired as to the reason, Assistant Attorney General David Belinky said he had been advised by hospital officials that the writer was suspected of having smuggled drugs to Milligan. Later the reason was changed to “not therapeutically advisable.”

(3)

November 30 was cold; the first snow lay on the ground. The Allen County Courthouse in Lima, Ohio, was an old building, and though Courtroom 3 was large enough to seat about fifty people, most of the chairs were empty. The Milligan review hearing had been closed to the public and the media, but the TV cameras were waiting outside.

The Teacher sat, in handcuffs, between his attorneys. In addition to the attorneys, only Dorothy, Del Moore and the writer were admitted as observers by the court. Also present were James O’Grady, assistant prosecutor for Franklin County, William Jan Hans, a representative of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, and Ann Henldner, an attorney observer for Southwest Community Mental Health Center in Columbus.

Judge David R. Kinworthy, a clean-shaven, handsome young man with sharply chiseled features, reviewed the history of commitment hearings from December 4, 1978, when Milligan had been found not guilty by reason of insanity, through the various re-commitments, to the present day, almost one year later. The hearing, Kinworthy said, was being held in accordance with the statutes of the Ohio Revised Code, paragraph 5122, section 15.

Assistant Attorney General Belinky s motion for separation of witnesses was granted. Attorney Steve Thompsons motion for the court to return Billy Milligan to Athens, considering the procedural defects in the transfer to Lima, was denied.

With preliminary motions over, the commitment review hearings began.

The first witness for the state was sixty-five-year-old Dr. Frederick Milkie, a short, fat psychiatrist with baggy pants and a baggy sweater. His dark hair was slicked down, and he waddled from the table beside Belinky (from which he would later serve as the states technical consultant) to the witness stand.

Dr. Milkie testified that he had seen Milligan twice, once briefly on October 24, 1979, when the patient had been transferred to his care at Lima, and then again on October 30, for review of his treatment plan. He had also been allowed to observe Milligan this morning for a half-hour before the hearing, to see if he had changed since a month ago. Referring to hospital records, Dr. Milkie stated that he had diagnosed Milligan as having a personality disorder, that he was antisocial and suffered from psychoneurotic anxiety with depressive and dissociative features.

David Belinky, a boyish-faced attorney with frizzy hair, asked his witness, “Is he exactly the same today? ”

“Yes, ” said Milkie. “He is mentally ill.”

“What are his symptoms? ”

“His behavior is unacceptable, ” Dr. Milkie said, looking directly at Milligan. “He is a criminal with rape and robbery charges. Hes at odds with his environment, the kind of individual who doesn’t profit from punishment.”

Milkie said he had considered the multiple personality diagnosis, but had seen no symptoms of it. In answer to Belinky s questions, Milkie said he considered Milligan a high suicide risk and a danger to others.

“There is no improvement in this patient, ” Milkie said. “He’s arrogant, uncooperative. He has an expansive ego. He doesn’t accept his milieu.” When asked by Belinky how he treated the patient, Milkie answered, “With skillful neglect.”

Milkie testified that he had prescribed five milligrams of Stelazine. He had seen no ill effects, but since there were also no beneficial effcts, he discontinued the antipsychotic drug. He told the court that in his opinion, Milligan needed a maximum-security facility, and Lima was the only place for him in Ohio.

Under cross-examination by Steve Thompson, Goldsberrys lanky young associate, Milkie said he rejected the diagnosis of multiple personality because he had not seen the symptoms. He did not, himself, accept the definition of multiple personality in DSM-II, the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Milkie said, “I ruled out multiple personality just as I ruled out syphilis when I saw his blood test. It wasn’t there.”

“What symptoms did you observe? ” Thompson asked.

“Anger, panic. Things weren’t going Milligan’s way. His anger takes over and he acts under impulse.”

Thompson frowned. “Are you saying that a person is mentally ill when he’s angry or depressed? ”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t we all have periods of anger and depression? ”

Milkie looked around the courtroom and shrugged. “Everybody is mentally ill.”

Thompson stared at the witness and then made some notes. “Does Billy trust you? ”

“No.”

“Would he make better progress with someone he trusted? ”

“Yes.”

“Your Honor, I have no further questions of this witness.”

Before the hearing went into luncheon recess, Alan Goldsberry introduced into evidence a deposition of Dr. Caul’s testimony taken three days earlier. Goldsberry wanted it on the record before he called his other witnesses, Dr. George Harding, Jr., Dr. Stella Karolin and Psychologist Dorothy Turner.

In the deposition, Steve Thompson, questioning Caul about ^; the proper treatment of multiple personality patients, had: asked, “I wonder if you could tell me, Doctor, what you consider to be the essential requirements for a treatment

program for an individual who is diagnosed as being a multiple personality.”

Dr. Caul, reading from notes, including a letter he had sent to Goldsberry on November 19, answered at length:

The treatment of any patient with the diagnosis of multiple personality should be undertaken only by a mental health professional, preferably a psychiatrist who meets the following criteria:

One—He (or she) must accept the condition. It should not be undertaken by someone who “doesn’t believe” in this phenomenon.

Two—If the psychiatrist is not experienced but is willing to undertake such treatment and accept the conditions, he should be supervised by, or at least have ongoing consultation with, a colleague who has such experience and expertise.

Three—He should have available the techniques of hypnosis as an adjunct in therapy if it is needed. This is not a necessity but is highly desirable.

Four—He should have read significant literature on the subject and personally should have attended some form of continuing education in this regard.

Five—He should possess the quality of almost infinite patience as well as tolerance and perseverance. Treatment of such a case requires an ongoing commitment to what will surely be long, laborious, and difficult theraphy.

Some general principles of therapy that are now accepted by those who have treated multiples are as follows:

One—All of the personalities must be identified and recognized.

Two—The therapist must ascertain the reason for the existence of such personalities.

Three—The therapist must then be willing to do therapy with all of the personalities in an attempt to effect change.

Four—The therapist should focus on whatever positive qualities may be identified and attempt to bring about some sort of compromise among the alter personalities, especially those which may pose a threat to the self or others.

Five—The patient must become fully aware of the nature and extent of the problems and must be helped through therapy, to contribute to positive resolution. In other words, Counselor, the patient must become aware of the treatment process and not just be a passive recipient of the therapy.

Six—Antipsychotic medication should be avoided, since it has become fairly well known that it may produce fragmentation as well as other side effects detrimental to treatment.

These are but some of the issues involved in doing therapy with such cases. By no means is this a complete description of how one does such therapy.

The deposition went on to explore these criteria in depth. When Belinky suggested in cross-examination that Caul had referred to the conditions for treating multiple personality as optimal, Caul responded sharply: “No sir, I didn’t say that these were basically the optimal. I would even say that those are minimal. Counselor, I believe that should be the scene for openers in treating a multiple. Otherwise a person should leave them alone and not treat them.”

When Milligan was brought back from the hospital after lunch, he had changed his shirt. The writer suspected the Teacher was gone.

Goldsberry and Thompson called Dr. George Harding, Jr., to the stand. After he summarized his involvement in the Milligan case, Dr. Harding said he still felt Athens was the proper place for Billy’s treatment.

“Dr. Harding, ” asked Belinky, in cross-examination, isn’t multiple personality very rare? ”

“It is.”

“Aren’t we all different people inside? ”

“The difference, ” said Dr. Harding, “is the amnesia.” “How do you prove amnesia? Couldn’t it be faked? ”

“We were very careful, ” Harding said. “We made repeated explorations. We approached it skeptically. His amnesia was legitimate. He was not feigning.”

“Dr. Harding, ” Goldsberry asked, in redirect examination, “did you use case histories and other hospital records to come to your diagnosis? ”

“I did. We used everything we could find.”

“Do you think it is necessary for a psychiatrist to use past records and the opinions of other treating physicians in arriving at a diagnosis? ”

“I believe it’s absolutely essential.”

When Harding was shown the letter by Dr. Caul setting forth the criteria for treating multiple personality, he told the court he felt it was an excellent statement, and agreed that those conditions were the minimum requirements.

Harding was followed to the witness stand by Psychologist Dorothy Turner, who testified that she had seen Billy on almost a daily basis before his trial and had given several of the personalities intelligence tests.

“What were the results? ” Goldsberry asked.

“Two had IQs of 68 to 70. One was average. Another was cleary superior—an IQ of 130.”

“Is it possible, ” Belinsky asked, “that these IQ differences could have been faked? ”

“Absolutely not, ” Turner said with anger in her voice. “I have no doubt that there was no way to fake these differences.” Dr. Stella Karolin testified that she had arrived independently at the same diagnosis as Dorothy Turner, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur and Dr. George Harding. Karolin had seen Milligan in April, June and July of this year and felt he was still split. “What if there are other problems? ” Belinky asked.

“The multiple personality should be treated first, ” Karolin said. “He may have other mental problems—different personalities might have different illnesses—but the overall problem should be treated first.”

“Do you think he was receiving correct treatment in Athens? ”

“I do.”

Goldsberry showed her the Caul letter. She nodded and agreed that these were the minimum basic requirements.

After Harding, Karolin and Turner were dismissed as witnesses, they were permitted to remain in the courtroom as observers.

For the first time in his life, at three-fifty that afternoon, Billy Milligan was allowed to testify in his own behalf.

With the handcuffs on, it was difficult for him to place his left hand on the Bible and raise his right hand. He bent over and smiled as he tried to do it. Then, after swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he took his seat and looked up at the judge.

“Mr. Milligan, ” Judge Kinworthy said, “I am going to advise you that although you have the right to participate in these

proceedings, you cannot be compelled to testify. You may jremain silent.”

Billy nodded.

Alan Goldsberry began direct examination in his soft, precise manner. “Billy, do you recall speaking in this courtroom an October 12? ”

“Yes, I do.”

“I’d like to ask you about the treatment you’re receiving at Lima State Hospital. Are you getting hypnotherapy? ”

“XT ”

No.

“Group therapy? ”

“No.”

“Music therapy? ”

Billy looked at the judge. “They took a bunch of us into a room where there was a piano and told us to sit there. There vas no therapist. We just sat around for hours.”

“Do you have any confidence in Dr. Milkie? ” Goldsberry isked.

“No. He ordered Stelazine. It messed me up.”

“How would you describe your treatment? ”

“When I got here, * I was on Ward 22. A psychologist was /ery rude to me. I went to sleep.”

“When did you first learn you were a multiple personality, Billy? ”

“At the Harding Hospital. I kind of believed it, but I really knew it when I saw the videotapes at the Athens Mental Health Center.”

“Why do you think it happened, Billy? ”

“Because of the things my stepfather did to me. I didn’t vant to be me anymore. I didn’t want to be Billy Milligan.” “Could you give us an example of what happens to you when /ou’re a multiple personality? ”

“Well, it’s like this. One day I was standing in front of a nirror in my apartment shaving. I’d had problems. I’d just noved to Columbus and I felt bad because I didn’t leave home)n good terms. I was standing there shaving, and it was as if he lights went out. It was real peaceful. When I opened my jyes, I was on a jet plane. I got real scared. I didn’t know ¹ vhere I was going until we landed and I found out it was San ^! Diego.”

The courtroom was silent. The judge listened attentively. The woman at the taping equipment looked up at Billy Milligan, her mouth open, eyes staring in amazement.

David Belinky rose to cross-examine the witness.

“Billy, why did you trust Dr. Caul and not the doctors at Lima? ”

“I had a strange trust in Dr. Caul from the day I met him. The policeman who brought me there from Columbus a year ago had put the handcuffs on me real tight.” He held his handcuffs up to show how loose they were now. “Dr. Caul started yelling at the policeman for having them so tight, and he made him take them off. It didn’t take me long to know he was on my side.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for you to cooperate with the treatment at Lima? ” asked Belinky.

“I can’t give myself therapy, ” Billy said. “Ward A is run like a sheep-dip—in and out. At Athens, I had my regressions, but I had to learn to correct them. They knew how to handle it—not with punishment but with treatment, with therapy.”

During his closing remarks, Belinky argued that it was the burden of the state to prove only that the respondent was mentally ill and subject to hospitalization. The diagnosis didn’t have to be proven. The only current testimony, he said, was from Dr. Caul and Dr. Milkie. Dr. Caul had said emphatically that Billy Milligan was still mentally ill. And Dr. Milkie had said that Lima State Hospital was the least restrictive environment in which to treat this patient.

“I urge the court, ” Belinky said, “to commit him to Lima.” Steve Thompson, in his summation, pointed out that an awesome array of psychiatric talent had been presented to the court on behalf of his client, and all agreed with the diagnosis of multiple personality.

“Once this is done, the question now is, How do we treat him? ” Thompson said. “Taking into account Billy Milligan’s mental status, these experts agree that he should be sent tc Athens as the most appropriate place for treatment. All these expert witnesses agree that he needs long-term treatment. Or October 4 he was transferred to Lima and examined by 2 physician who claims he made no reference to his prior medical history or treatment, and he concludes that Billy Milligan i! a threat to himself and others. And how does he come to the conclusion he is a threat? Based on prior convictions, Youi donor. Based on the stale evidence introduced into these learings. Dr. Milkie says he displays antisocial behavior. Dr. dilkie says Billy Milligan showed no improvement. Your ionor, it is clear that Dr. Milkie is not an expert in multiple > ersonality. It is the position of the respondent that the quality > f experts are on Billy Milligans side.”

Judge Kin worthy announced he would take the matter un-ler advisement and render a decision in not more than ten lays. Until then, Milligan would remain at Lima.

On December 10, 1979, the court made the following find-ngs:

1. The respondent is a mentally ill person in that his condition represents a substantial disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation and memory that grossly impairs his judgment, behavior and capacity to recognize reality.

2. That respondents mental illness is a condition diagnosed as multiple personality.

3. That respondent is a mentally ill person subject to hospitalization by Court order in that, because of his illness, he represents a substantial risk of physical harm to himself as manifested by evidence of threats of suicide; represents a substantial risk of physical harm to others as manifested by evidence of recent violent behavior; and further that he would benefit from treatment in a hospital for his mental illness and is in need of such treatment as manifested by evidence of behavior that creates a grave and imminent risk to the substantial rights of others and to himself.

4. That respondent, due to his mental illness, is dangerous to himself and to others and therefore requires hospitalization in a maximum security facility.

5. That by reason of respondent having been diagnosed as a multiple personality, his treatment should be consistent with such diagnosis.

It is ordered therefore that the said respondent be committed to the Lima State Hospital, Lima, Ohio, for treatment consistent with the diagnosis of said respondent as a multiple personality and that copies under seal of the findings in this case be transmitted to the Lima State Hospital, Lima, Ohio.

David R. Kinworthy, Judge Allen County Common Pleas Court Probate Division

(4)

Billy called the writer from the Lima State Hospital male infirmary on December 18. He had been badly beaten by a hospital employee. A Lima attorney who had been appointed guardian ad litem at the hearing had taken Polaroids of welts across his back from being whipped with an extension cord. Billy’s eyes and face were blackened, and he had two cracked ribs.

The hospital administrators released a statement to the press saying that following an “altercation with an attendant, ” Milligan was found to have no injuries other than those that had been apparently self-inflicted.

The next day, after a visit by Attorney Steve Thompson, the Lima administration reversed itself, issuing a statement confirming that Milligan had “subsequently been severely injured.” Both the FBI and the Ohio State Highway Patrol were called in to make investigations for possible submission to the grand jury.

Thompson was outraged by the reports from Billy as well as from the Lima attorney, and he released a statement reported only on the radio. “Ultimately, anyone who is incarcerated still has the protection of his civil rights, ” he told the newscaster, “and in Ohio statutory law, patients have rights that were granted by the recent amendments to the mental health bill— patients’ civil rights. Under the United States statutes, they have the protection of the federal civil rights bills, too. And those ultimately can be enforced in court. It would be too early: to say what’s going to happen here.”

The Lima State Hospital “Third Monthly Treatment Plan Review” of January 2, 1980, made the determination that:

The Patient’s treatment plan is both valid and proper for his condition.

Patient’s diagnosis is: (1) Psuedopsychopathic Schizophrenia (DSM II, 295.5) with dissociative episodes; (2) R/O Anti-Social Personality, hostile subtype (DSM II, 301.7): (3) Alcohol Addiction (DSM II, 303-2) by history; and (4) Drug Dependence, stimulants (304.6) by history.

The patient was referred to the ITU Unit a couple of weeks ago due to the patient’s acting out, violently, at the male hospital

... The patient, I believe, has been adversely affected by the notoriety which he has received in the paper, and as such, is carrying around this “star status” attitude... Mr. Milligan shows marked characteristics of the true psychopath, and as such is [as] hard to deal with as any other psychopathic patient.... In addition, the patient displays many of the characteristics of Hysteric Personality. Even though this disorder is usually seen in females, there are numerous cases of male hysterical personality. This condition should not be ruled out.

[signed] Lewis A. Linder, M.D.

Staff psychiatrist 1/4/80 [signed] J. William McIntosh, Ph.D.

Psychologist 1/4/80 [signed] John Doran, M.A. Psychology Assistant 1/7/80

Angered at the Lima State Hospital officials for not adhering to Judge Kinworthy s court order to treat Milligan as a multiple personality, Alan Goldsberry and Steve Thompson filed a con-tempt-of-court motion against the Lima authorities and the Ohio State Department of Mental Health. They pressed the Office of the State Director of Mental Health to transfer Billy Milligan to a less restrictive hospital.

(5)

Locked in the strong ward of the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, the unfused Billy Milligan checked out a pencil from one of the attendants and began to write the first of a series of letters to the writer:

Suddenly an attendant, stepping through the doorway, belched a threatening command to the patients of ward 22.

“All right you stupid mother fuckers lets clear out this God Damn day hall. Move it. NOW! ” Pausing for another gasp and to adjust the juicy cigar stub he mumbled, “When the glass is cleaned up we’ll call tpus ass holes, but until then get the fuck in your rooms.”

Glaring coldly at us, the small crowd got out of t