When he wasn’t in the visiting room, he spent his time reading, writing and sketching. He was not allowed to paint He had visits from Mary, a young outpatient he had met during his first months in Athens. She moved to Dayton so that she could see him daily. Billy was well behaved, and he told me he looked forward to his 180-day hearing, hoping that Judge Flowers would decide he didn’t need a maximum security institution and would send him back to Athens. He knew that Dr. Caul could treat him, fuse him again and bring back the Teacher. With Billy-U asleep, he said, things were now as they had been before Dr. Cornelia Wilbur wakened him.

I could see that he was deteriorating. Several times during my visits, he would tell me he didn’t know who he was. When there was a partial fusion, he became a person with no name. Ragen, he reported, had lost the ability to speak English. People had stopped communicating with each other. I suggested he keep a daily log so whoever was on the spot could write messages. It worked for a while, but interest flagged and the entries were fewer and fewer.

On April 3, 1981, Billy had his 180-dayhearing. Of the foui psychiatrists and two mental health professionals who testified.

Only Dr. Lewis Lindner of Lima, who had not seen him in five months, testified that he should be kept in maximum security.

A letter was introduced by the prosecutor into evidence. In it Milligan was apparently responding to news that another patient at Lima had planned to have Dr. Lindner killed. “Your tactic is completely wrong …Have you considered the fact that not many doctors would consider taking your case, knowing they may be hit for saying the wrong thing? But in fact, if Lindner has damaged you and your case beyond repair and if you feel your life is over because you’re going to spend eternity behind bars, you have my blessing.”

When Milligan was called to the witness stand and asked his name under oath, he said, “Tommy.” Tommy explained that Allen had written the letter in an attempt to talk the other patient out of killing Dr. Lindner. “It’s wrong to go around shooting people just because they testify against you in court. Dr. Lindner testified against me today, but I certainly wouldn’t shoot him for it.”

Judge Flowers deferred his decision. The newspapers ran front-page stories, feature articles and editorials opposing any move to Athens.

While waiting to hear his fate, Allen spent most of his time at Dayton working on a painting for the cover of this book. He planned to send the editor several sketches to choose from, but one morning he awoke to discover that one of the children had come out while he was asleep and scribbed over the sketches with orange crayon. On the morning of the assigned deadline, Allen worked furiously and finished the desired oil painting on time.