Epilogue

In the months that followed, I kept in touch with Billy by mail or telephone. He continued to hope that the court of appeals could overturn the decision that had sent him to Lima, and bat he would be able to return to Athens to continue his treatment with Dr. Caul.

On April 14, 1980, at a second review hearing, Judge Kin-vorthy threw out contempt-of-court charges filed by Billy’s lawyer against Superintendent Ronald Hubbard and Clinical Director Lewis Lindner for not treating Billy as a multiple personality. The judge ordered that Billy remain at Lima.

During most of 1979, the Ohio legislature had been considering changes in the existing laws regarding persons found lot guilty by reason of insanity. Before such an individual could be transferred to a less restrictive environment (as the law required), the county prosecutor would have the right to demand a hearing in the jurisdiction in which the crime had been committed. The patients right to a review would be banged from every 90 days to every 180 days, and would also )e open to the public, the press and TV. This soon came to be allowed by many, “the Columbus Dispatch law” or “the Milligan law.”

Bernie Yavitch, who had been the prosecutor on the Milligan case, later told me he had worked on the subcommittee of he Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association that drafted the lew law. Yavitch said: “The group was meeting, I guess, in response to the outcry that was going on over the Milligan ituation …”

The new law, Senate Bill 297, was passed, effective May 20, .980. Judge Flowers told me that the new law had been passed because of Billy.

On July 1, 1980, I received a letter postmarked Lima, with the word Urgent printed on the back of the envelope. When I opened it, I discovered a three-page letter written in flowing Arabic script. According to the translator, it was in perfect, fluent Arabic. It read, in part:

Sometimes I do not know who I am or what I am. And sometimes I do not even know the other people surrounding me. The echo of the voices are still in my mind, but they have no meaning at all. Several faces appear to me, as if from a darkness, but I am feeling very fearful because my mind is totally divided.

My [internal] family, in fact, is not in continuous contact with me at all, and have not been for a long time…. The events here in the last weeks were not very good. I am not responsible for it at all. I hate everything that transpires around me, but I can’t stop it, and I can’t alter it….

It was signed “Billy Milligan.” A few days later I received another letter, explaining who had written the first one.

Again I am sorry for the non English letters. It really embarrasses me to do everything wrong. Arthur knows you don’t speak Arabic but he sends you a dumb letter like that.

Arthur has never tried to impress anyone so he must be getting mixed up and just forgot. Samuel was taught by Arthur about Arabic, but he never writes letters. Arthur says it is bad to boast. I wish he would talk to me. Bad things are happening and I don’t know why.

Arthur also speaks Swahili. Arthur read many books in Lebanor [prison] about the fundamentals of Arabic. He wanted to explore the pyramids and the Egyptian culture. He had to learn their language and to know what they wrote on the wall. I asked Arthur one day why he was interested in that big pile of tri angled rocks. He told me that he was not as interested in who was in the tomb, but it might give a key to how the tomb go there. He said something about how it defies a law of physic' and he was looking for the answer. He even made little card board pyramids, but David smashed them.

[signed] Billy U