“Then I’m afraid we stay with the plea we’ve entered,” Gary said. “Not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity.”

Arthur looked at him coldly and his lips barely moved. “You will never plead insanity on my behalf.”

“It’s our only hope,” Judy said.

“I am not insane,” Arthur insisted, “and that ends the discussion.”

The following day, Judy and Gary received another note on lined yellow legal paper saying that William S. Milligan no longer wished to be represented by them, that he intended to handle his own defense.

“He’s fired us again,” Gary said. “What do you think?”

“I think I never saw this one, either,” Judy said, putting it into a folder. “Papers get lost and mislaid. I mean, with our great filing system, it might take six or seven months to find it.”

In the says that followed, four other dismissal letters to his attorneys were misfiled, and when they refused to answer his letters, Arthur finally gave up trying to fire them.

“Can we win with an insanity plea?” Judy asked.

Gary lit his pipe and puffed away at it. “If Karolin, Turner, Kocan, Harding and Wilbur will testify that Billy was legally insane at the time of the crimes, under the Ohio definition, I think we’ve got a pretty good shot at it.”

“But you’re the one who told me no multiple personality has ever been found not guilty by reason of insanity for a major crime.”

“Well, then,” Gary said, grinning through his beard, “William Stanley Milligan will be the first.”

(7)

Dr. George Harding, Jr., now found himself struggling with his conscience. There was no doubt in his mind that Billy was fused or close to fusion now and probably could be fused enough to stand trial. That wasn’t the problem. As Dr. George lay awake nights in late August, going over the material for the report to Judge Flowers, he wondered if it was morally right to use the diagnosis of multiple personality as a defense against these major crimes.

He was deeply concerned with the issue of criminal responsibility. It troubled him that his words might be misused, bringing discredit to the multiple personality diagnosis, to other patients who had this syndrome, to the profession and to psychiatric testimony. If Judge Flowers accepted his judgment that this dissociative disorder, classified thus far as a neurosis, was reason to find a patient not guilty by reason of insanity, he knew it would set legal precedent in Ohio, and perhaps in the country.

Dr. George believed Billy Milligan had not had control over his actions on those three fateful days last October. It was his job to learn more and to push into new areas. It was his responsibility to understand this case, to understand Billy in a way that would be useful to society in dealing with similar problems. He again phoned other professionals for advice and guidance, conferred with his staff, and then on September 12, 1978, he sat down and wrote his nine-page report to Judge Flowers, in which he described Billy Milligans medical, social and psychiatric history.