William Stanley Milligan, known as Billy MilliganBorn in Miami Beach on Valentine’s Day 1955, his life has been anything but an ode to love. In his early years he suffered from his father Johnny’s alcoholism. At the age of 3, the father was poisoned with carbon monoxide after a failed suicide attempt. This original loss left the child constantly feeling vulnerable.
His mother, Dorothy, married Chalmer in 1963, unaware that he would be her son’s pederast and frequent abuser of little Billy. Since then, and despite the fact that the court sentenced the stepfather, his personality was split. The psychological mechanism he developed to ward off pain was multiple identities. His main self was unaware of his conversions.
Due to multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder), David appeared as a very sensitive boy at the age of eight. Then came three-year-old Christene, a dyslexic girl who liked to draw in a corner when Billy had a problem. Also the deaf boy Shawn, four years old. His mother anticipated these sudden changes when Netflix was putting together the commercial documentary Inner Monsters: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan.
Report of sexual violence
In 1975, Ohio authorities arrested Billy at the Lebanon Correctional Institution for rape and armed robbery. Two years later he was paroled.
In October of that year, 1977, he began touring around Ohio State University in search of new victims. Within a few weeks he raped three women who managed to identify him and report him to the police, but their testimonies contradicted one another that he had a foreign accent, another that he had acted kindly at first, and the last one said , the perpetrator spoke to him as if he were a three-year-old girl.
This confusion spread to the prison guards. Billy was being held in the Ohio State Penitentiary for kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape pending psychological testing. The various studies showed that the young man suffered from acute schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. More than two personalities stood out in these initial results. The account would go up.
Billy Milligan. Photo: AP
Defense Advisory Report by Billy Milligan
With reports filed in the Ohio jail, attorneys Gary Schweickart and Judy Stevenson argued that Milligan needed to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. During roll call, studies continued and the first 10 personalities of Billy were discovered. Each was independent of the other: they had their own memories, behaviors, and preferences.
Billy Milligan’s top 10 personalities
1. Billy (26 years old): The main personality who was “fragmented”.
2. Ragen Vadaskovinich (23 years old): Yugoslav communist with Slavic accent, fan of guns and karate. He was the originator of several robberies, but did not remember the criminal acts.
3. Arthur (22 years old): formal and intellectual Englishman, expert in science and medicine. Billy went to him when he needed rational thinking.
4. Allen (18 years old): who spoke most to the outside world and the only one who smoked cigars. In addition to being manipulative and hypocritical, he was also a con artist, played the drums and painted portraits.
5. Tommy (16 years old): Electronic music lover and electronics expert. He played the saxophone, painted landscapes and maintained a close bond with his mother. He was sometimes confused with Allen.
6. Danny (14 years old): still life painter, he had a fear of people and especially men, which is known as anthropophobia. This personality was created by the violence of his stepfather, who buried him alive.
7. David (age 8): Known as the “Pain Gatekeeper” among Billy’s identities because he absorbed all of the other personalities’ suffering.
8. Christene (3 years old): Girl with dyslexia, she liked to draw and lived apart from others. Arthur taught her to read and write, while Ragen had a special bond with her.
9. Christopher (aged 13): Christene’s brother. Obedient but annoying. He played harmonica.
10. Adalana (19 years old): Poet, lesbian, shy and lonely, she was the personality who admitted to committing rape without the knowledge of another alter ego.
The Other 14 Personalities of Billy Milligan
During his seclusion, David Caul was one of the psychiatrists treating him. The doctor was the one who added the 14 personalities described below and classified them as “undesirable”.
11. Phillip (20 years old): Committed petty crimes. Known as “the bully,” he had a Brooklyn accent and used profanity.
12. Kevin (20 years old): Criminal who planned robberies, including that of a pharmacy.
13. Walter (aged 22): Emotionally repressed Australian who took up big game hunting.
April 14 (age 19): She planned to get revenge on Billy’s stepfather by trying to convince Ragen, the Yugoslav communist with a Slavic accent, to do so.
15. Samuel (18 years old): the only personality who believed in God. He carved and carved wood.
16. Mark (age 16): Known as “the zombie” because he didn’t do anything unless someone told him to do it.
17. Steve (21 years old): Mockingly mimics and laughs at others. It caused several family problems.
18. Lee (20 years old): Comedian, prankster and witty. His jokes caused arguments and he didn’t care about the consequences of his actions.
19. Jason (13 years old): suffered from hysterical reactions and tantrums.
20. Robert (age 17): Also known as Bobby, he was a daydreamer who constantly fantasized about travel and adventure.
21. Shawn (4 years old): Known as “the deaf”, he heard a ringing in his head.
22. Martin (age 19): New York snob who wanted to get free stuff.
23. Timothy (15 years old): He worked in a flower shop where he had a homosexual relationship with a customer.
24. The Teacher (age 26): Brilliant and sensitive, he was the sum of 23 personalities rolled into one. He considered himself “Billy in One Piece” because he remembered the actions and thoughts of almost everyone else.
the process
Those present at the verdict confirmed the authenticity of the psychiatric studies: Billy essentially showed some of his personalities before the judges, intoned different dialects, sat and behaved differently. One of her defense attorneys argued that while “it’s possible that multiple personality disorder may be fake (or even not real),” its symptoms cannot be fake. He was ordered to be transferred to a mental institution until his recovery. After his recovery, he was acquitted of all charges in 1991.
In 2014, Billy died of cancer in a nursing home in Columbus. He was then 59 years old. His multiple personality case set a precedent because it was the first to be used as a defense in the United States to obtain an acquittal for the alleged crimes.