“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.”