Afterword

Since first publication of this book, I have received letters from readers all over the country asking what happened to Billy Milligan after Judge Flowers turned down his request to be transferred to Athens.

To sum it up briefly:

In his notes to me, “Allen” described the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane as “a chamber of horrors.” He later referred to the Dayton Forensic Center as an “ultra-clean germ-tank jail.” Daytons superintendent, Allen Vogel, was sympathetic and understanding of Milligans needs, but he was increasingly hampered by his security staff. Though Vogel gave Milligan permission to paint in oils, and “Tommy” and “Allen” ordered art supplies brought in, Vogel was overruled by his security office on the grounds that the linseed oil used in painting could be dangerous. The art supplies were removed from the hospital.

Increasingy depressed, Allen insisted that Mary, his friend and constant visitor, return to graduate school and make a life of her own. “I just can’t keep her in prison with me, ” he said.

Several weeks after Mary left Dayton, another young woman entered Milligan’s life. Tanda, a resident df Dayton, who regularly visited her brother at the Dayton Forensic Center, became aware of Milligan in the visitors’ room. Her brother introduced them. Soon she began to do for Milligan some of the things Mary had done for him: typing, bringing in outside food, buying him clothing.

On July 22, 1981, Tanda called me and said she was worried about Billy. He wasn’t changing his clothes, or shaving, or eating. He was withdrawing from all outside contacts. He had, she felt, lost interest in living.

When I went to visit him at the hospital, Tommy told me that Arthur, having given up hope of treatment and cure, had decided to commit suicide.

I argued that there had to be an alternative to suicide—a transfer from Dayton. I had learned that Dr. Judyth Box, a psychiatrist who had testified on his behalf at the last court hearing, had recently been appointed clinical director at the newly opened Central Ohio Regional Forensic Unit (CORFU), in Columbus.

At first, Tommy refused to consider a transfer from one maximum security hospital to another. CORFU was part of the Central Ohio Psychiatric Hospital (COPH), where Milligan had spent three months when he was fifteen years old. If he couldn’t get back to Athens and Dr. David Caul, Tommy insisted, he might as well be dead. I pointed out that since Dr. Box had treated other multiple personality patients, knew Dr. Caul very well, and had already shown interest in Billy’s case, she might be able to help him. Tommy finally agreed to be transferred.

The Department of Mental Health, the prosecutor, and the judge agreed that since this would be an internal transfer from one maximum security hospital to another, no court hearing would be required. But the wheels turned slowly.

One day, before the transfer, I received a call from another patient who said that Milligan—afraid he might hurt someone and jeopardize the transfer to Columbus—had volunteered to be put into seclusion. After four security guards got him into the seclusion room and strapped down his arms and legs, they jumped on him and beat him.

When I next saw Allen, on August 27, his left arm, now black and blue, was swollen, his left hand paralyzed. His left leg was bandaged. On September 22, 1981, he was transferred to the Central Ohio Regional Forensic Unit—in a wheelchair.

Shortly after his transfer, the Department of Mental Health filed a lawsuit against Billy Milligan for fifty thousand dollars to pay for his involuntary hospitalization and treatment at Athens, Lima, and Dayton. Billy’s attorneys later filed a countersuit, charging for murals he painted on the walls of Lima State Hospital and asking damages for physical abuse and malpractice. The countersuit was denied. The states suit is still pending.

Tanda, eager to be close to him, got a job in Columbus and moved in with his sister, Kathy. She loved him, she said, and wanted to be able to visit him often.

Dr. Box began the intensive therapy methods that had earlier been successful in fusing the personalities at the Athens Mental Health Center. She worked with David, Ragen, Arthur, Allen, Kevin, and, finally, was able to reach the Teacher. Each time I visited, Allen or Tommy would tell me I had just missed seeing the Teacher. Finally, I left them instructions to post a message in the room. The next time the Teacher was there, he was to phone me. About a week later, I got a call from him, saying “Hi, I hear you’ve been wanting to talk to

me.

It was the first time I had spoken to the Teacher since we had gone over the manuscript of the book together, in Lima. Now we talked for a long time, and he was able to fill in some of the gaps that the others had no knowledge of.

One day the Teacher called and said, “I’ve got to tell someone. I’m in love with Tanda, and she’s in love with me. We want to get married.” They planned the wedding for December 15th so that Dr. Box could attend before she went on her month long vacation to her native Australia.

As part of the treatment plan, Dr. Box moved Milligan onto a new ward, along with three other patients she had tentatively diagnosed as multiples. Since multiple personalities required specialized treatment and attention, she felt it might be best to have them together. Dr. Box was not prepared for the criticism by Columbus politicians which followed, two weeks before election day.

The Columbus Dispatch reported on October 17, 1981, that State Representative Don Gilmore, R-Columbus, had charged that Billy Milligan was receiving preferential treatment at the Columbus hospital, including: “Allowing Milligan to choose the patients who will live with him on the ward.” Though hospital administrators denied that Milligan was getting any preferential treatment, Gilmore continued to press his accusations.

The Columbus Citizen-Journal of November 19, reported:

Despite assurances that William Milligan is receiving no extra privileges at the Central Ohio Psychiatric Hospital, a state representative has asked for another investigation into the possibility....

One of Gilmore s concerns centered around an incident several weeks ago when Milligan... reportedly ordered a bologna sandwich at 2: 30 a.m. He said the hospital staff then had to prepare sandwiches for everyone in Milligans ward...

Tanda tried for weeks to find a preacher, minister, priest, or judge who would perform the ceremony. Finally, she found a young Methodist minister, director of the city’s new transient “open shelter, ” who agreed to marry them. Gary Witte had hoped to remain anonymous, fearing that the publicity might harm his work at the shelter. However, a Columbus Dispatch reporter recognized and identified him. “My personal philosophy, ” the young minister told him, “is that I’ve always been for the underdog.... I did the ceremony because nobody else would do it...”

The marriage took place on December 22, 1981, with only the minister, an officer of the probate court who had brought the marriage license, and myself present. Dr. Box had already left for Australia. It was the Teacher who placed the ring on Tanda’s finger, and kissed her. Since Ohio does not have conjugal visits, there would be no possibility for them to be alone together unless he was transferred to a minimum security or a civil-mental hospital.

After the wedding, Tanda faced the dozens of waiting reporters, photographers, and TV cameramen at a brief press conference. She told them she had met most of the personalities and they had accepted her. She said a day would come when they would live a normal life.

Soon afterward, the Teacher and Tanda began to notice ominous changes. The Teacher was taken off all medication. Security began a pattern of shaking down his room, and strip-searching him before and after each visitor. Even Tanda was strip-searched on occasion when she came to visit. Both of them found it humiliating and felt it was calculated harassment.

When Dr. Box returned from Australia, she learned that her contract would not be renewed by the Department of Mental Health. “I was squeezed out, ” she told me.

The Columbus Dispatch reported the story on January 17, 1982:

MILLIGANS PSYCHIATRIST QUITS STATE JOB

Dr. Judyth M. Box, psychiatrist of convicted [stc] multiple

personality rapist William S. Milligan, has resigned her state job

in a dispute with officials at the Central Ohio Forensic Hospital.

State Rep. Don E. Gilmore, R-Columbus, lauded the resignation...

The Teacher fragmented.

Milligan’s new therapist, Dr. John (“Jay”) Davis, a young, exNavy psychiatrist, was skeptical when he took over the case, but he found himself drawn into a study of Milligan’s background. He won the confidence of most of the personalities and was able to work with them.

On February 12th, Kathy discovered her sister-in-laws clothing and possessions were missing, and Billy’s car was gone. Tanda had left a note addressed to “Billy” saying she had taken all his money out of their joint bank account, but that she would pay it back some day. The note also said she knew it was wrong to steal away in the night, but she couldn’t handle the pressure from all sides.

“I was in love, and I was gullible, ” Allen told me. “I felt broken. For a while I felt cold. Then I told myself I have to get over her and forget what she did to me. I have no right to judge all women by Tanda just as I have no right to judge all men by Daddy Chal.”

Dr. Jay Davis was impressed by the way his patient handled the news. Although the personalities felt cheated and betrayed, they took it quite well.

On March 26, 1982, the commitment hearing was held in Judge Flowers’ court to determine if Milligan was dangerous to himself or others, or if he could now be transferred to a minimum security hospital like the Athens Mental Health Center. The testimony of the psychiatrists and psychologists! was contradictory.

The position of the prosecutor s office had been made cleai in an interview given by the assistant Franklin County prose-

cutor, Thomas D. Beal, to a reporter of the Columbus Citizen-Journal, published on January 14:.. I’m kind of hoping

there is [evidence Milligan is violent] so we can have more ammunition to keep him in a maximum security facility.”

At the hearing, Dr. Mijo Zakman, clinical director of COPH, testified that he and two other psychiatrists had examined Milligan for about two hours, in preparation for the hearing, and reported they saw no personalities. Milligan, he said, was not mentally ill at all but was an antisocial personality.

This was a startling and threatening development. If the Department of Mental Health could convince Judge Flowers that Milligan was not mentally ill, he could be discharged from the hospital, be picked up immediately by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, and sent to prison as a parole violator.

But Dr. Jay Davis testified, “He’s at the baseline level... He is fragmented. I could name the personality sitting there right now, and its not Billy.”

He pointed out to Judge Flowers why Columbus was not the place for Milligan. “Maximum security facilities obstruct the therapy of multiple personality patients.” If he stayed at the Columbus facility, Davis explained, the treatment was likely to be nonproductive.

Dr. Harry Eisel, a clinical psychologist, testified that he had administered the “Hand” test to several of the aggressive personalities to determine whether or not they might be dangerous. The “Hand” test, a series of pictures of hands in ~ different positions, about which the patient makes judgments, is a projective technique to evaluate the individual s potential for violent behavior. Eisel testified that none of the personalities he had tested (I later learned they were Philip, Kevin, and Ragen) were dangerous to any significant degree.

Although a social worker testified for the prosecutor that Milligan had threatened him and his family, under crossexamination he admitted he was threatened often by mental patients, but that nothing had ever come of them.

Dr. Caul testified that he would accept Milligan for treatment and would abide by any restrictions imposed by the court.

On April 8, 1982, Judge Jay Flowers ordered the Department of Mental Health to transfer Billy Milligan back to the Athens Mental Health Center. He ordered that the patient be allowed to paint and do woodworking, but he also suggested close supervision off the ward. Before Milligan could be permitted to leave the hospital grounds, the court must be notified. “People say he deserves another chance, ” Judge Flowers said. “Lets give him another chance.”

At eleven o’clock, on the morning of April 15, 1982, after two and a half years in three Ohio maximum security hospitals, Billy Milligan was returned to Athens.

I visit him regularly, and speak with Tommy or Allen. According to both of them, there has been no co-consciousness among the “people” for a long time. Allen hears the voices in his head—the British and Yugoslav accents—but neither he nor Tommy can get through to them, or to each other. There is no communication inside. There is much lost time. The Teacher has not, at this writing, returned.

Tommy is painting landscapes. Danny is painting still lifes. Allen is painting portraits, and making notes of the incredible experiences at Lima, Dayton, and Columbus, and how his people coped and survived.

Dr. David Caul has begun the difficult task of undoing the damage of the past two and a half years, and of trying to put pieces back together again. No one knows how long it will take.

Although Billy Milligans return to Athens stirred up controversy in Columbus that upset him, he was pleased when he read a copy of the Ohio University student newspaper. The Post had published an editorial on April 12th, anticipating the transfer:

“... Milligan, who has certainly not been given a fair shake in life, has come to Athens to be treated by the experts here. And this community, if it does anything at all, should help to give him the supportive atmosphere he needs... We’re not asking you to welcome Milligan with open arms. But we are asking you to understand. It’s the least he deserves.”

Athens, Ohio May 7, 1982