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

“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 very 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 you’re a multiple personality?”

“Well, it’s like this. One day I was standing in front of a mirror in my apartment shaving. I’d had problems. I’d just moved 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 eyes, I was on a jet plane. I got real scared. I didn’t know where I was going until we landed and I found out it was Sam! 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.