The minds of Billy Milligan

Billy Milligan can be anyone he wants to be … except himself.

Out of control of his own actions, Billy Milligan was a man tormented by twenty-four distinct personalities battling for supremacy over his body—a battle which culminated in late 1977 when he awoke in jail, arrested for the kidnap and rape of three women. In a landmark trial, Billy was acquitted of his crimes by reason of insanity caused by multiple personality—the first such court decision in history—bringing to public light the most remarkable and harrowing case of multiple personality ever recorded.

Daniel Keyes

The minds of Billy Milligan

ePub r1.0

Titivillus 25.09.2021

Original title: The minds of Billy Milligan

Daniel Keyes, 1981

Digital editor: Titivillus

ePub base r2.1

To the victims of child abuse, especially those in hiding …

Acknowledgments

In addition to the hundreds of meetings and conversations with William Stanley Milligan, this book was developed from interviews with sixty-two people whose lives touched his. Although most of these people are clearly identified as they appear in the story, I would like to express my gratitude for their help.

I would like, also, to thank personally the following, whose cooperation played an important part in my research and investigations, and in the beginning, development and publication of this book:

Dr. David Caul, clinical director of the Athens Mental Health Center; Dr. George Harding, Jr., director of Harding Hospital; Dr. Cornelia Wilbur; Gary Schweickart and Judy Stevenson, public defenders; L. Alan Goldsberry and Steve Thompson, attomeys-at-law; Dorothy Moore and Del Moore, Milligans mother and present stepfather; Kathy Morrison, Milligans sister; and Milligans close friend Mary.

I am grateful for the cooperation of the staffs of the following institutions: the Athens Mental Health Center, Harding Hospital (especially Ellie Jones, public relations), the Ohio State University police department, the Ohio prosecutors office, the Columbus police department, the Lancaster police department.

My thanks and respect to two of the Ohio State University rape victims (portrayed by the pseudonyms Carrie Dryer and Donna West), who volunteered to give, in detail, the victims’ point of view.

I should like to thank my agent-attomey, Donald Engel, for his confidence and support in launching the project, and to my editor, Peter Gethers, whose unflagging enthusiasm and critical eye helped me get the material under control.

Although most people were eager to cooperate, several preferred not to talk to me, and I want to make clear the source of my material about them:

Dr. Harold T. Brown of the Fairfield Mental Health Clinic, who treated Milligan when he was fifteen, is represented in his comments, thoughts and insights by quotations and paraphrases from his case notes. Dorothy Turner and Dr. Stella Karolin of the Southwest Community Mental Health Center, who discovered and first diagnosed Milligan s multiple personalities, are described through his clear memory of meetings with them, corroborated by their written reports, their sworn court testimony and descriptions of other psychiatrists and attorneys who knew and spoke with them at the time.