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Daniel Keyes. The Mysterious Case of Billy Milligan

Book by Daniel Keyes mysterious story Billy Milligan" is undeniably amazing, soulful literary work. Here you can download or read the book online, the author does a good job of immersing the reader in the world of his character. Also important is his ability to describe things that are very difficult to understand in a simple and accessible form for the reader.

It is noteworthy that this story is biographical, Milligan - a real man. This is a young guy who has been diagnosed with multiple personality. In his mind, there were alternately completely dissimilar personalities, of different sex, age, even different nationality. There were 24 in total!

Reading the book, one gets the feeling that this is completely impossible. I can’t believe that such a person could really exist, and it seems that all this is fiction or deceit. But turning to the sources, we can conclude that this was in many ways actually, and this reality is most shocking.

The inner world of the hero of the work is difficult to imagine. What should be happening in the mind of a person where so many personalities live? How can this be perceived?

What is it like to wake up in prison, not knowing for what crime, and when you hear accusations, you realize that you do not remember such events in your life? It seems to you that it was not you ... You are partly right: it was not you, but at the same time ... you. What is it like to wake up and realize that you don't remember the last seven years of your life?

Milligan evokes various emotions: on the one hand, he is a criminal who must be punished, on the other, he is a sick person who is sincerely sorry. And it becomes uncomfortable from how difficult it is to decide how to relate to this person.

The book is addictive, causing interest in what happens to the human psyche, what is hidden in the depths of his subconscious, how scary it is to consist of many personalities, and how such an existence is even possible.

On our website you can download the book "The Secret History of Billy Milligan" by Daniel Keyes for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.

Dedicated to all those who suffered from childhood abuse, especially those who are then forced to hide ...

THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN

Copyright © 1981 by Daniel Keyes

© Fedorova Yu., translation into Russian, 2014

© Edition in Russian, design. Eksmo Publishing LLC, 2014

© Electronic version of the book prepared by LitRes, 2014

Thanks

In addition to hundreds of meetings and conversations with William Stanley Milligan himself, this book is based on conversations with sixty-two people with whom he crossed paths. life path. And although many appear in the story under proper names I would like to specifically thank them for their assistance.

I also say “thank you” to everyone listed below - these people helped me a lot in the investigation, thanks to them the idea was born, this book was written and published.

These are Dr. David Kohl, Director of the City of Athens Mental Health Center, Dr. George Harding Jr., Director of the Harding Hospital, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, Public Defenders Gary Schweikart and Judy Stevenson, Attorneys L. Alan Goldsberry and Steve Thompson, Dorothy Moore and Del Moore, mother and Milligan's current stepfather, Cathy Morrison, Milligan's sister and also Milligan's close friend Mary.

In addition, I thank the staff of the following institutions: Athens Mental Health Center, Harding Hospital (especially Ellie Jones of Public Affairs), Ohio State Police Department, Ohio State Attorney's Office, Columbus Police Department, Lancaster Police Department.

I also want to thank and respect the two Ohio State University rape victims (who appear in the book under the pseudonyms Carrie Dryer and Donna West) for agreeing to provide detailed description their perception of events.

I would like to say “thank you” to both my agent and lawyer Donald Engel for his confidence and support in launching this project, and to my editor Peter Gethers, whose unquenchable enthusiasm and critical eye helped me organize the collected material.

Many agreed to help me, but there were also those who preferred not to talk to me, so I would like to explain where I got some of the information.

Comments, Quotes, Reflections and Ideas by Dr. Harold T. Brown from psychiatric hospital Fairfield, who treated Milligan when he was fifteen, are gleaned from his medical records. Milligan himself clearly remembered meetings with Dorothy Turner and Dr. Stella Carolyn of the Southwestern Mental Health Center, who were the first to identify and diagnose him with a split personality. The descriptions are supplemented by affidavits given by him under oath, as well as testimonies from other psychiatrists and lawyers with whom they interacted at the time.

Chalmer Milligan, William's adoptive father (who was identified in the trial as well as in the media as "stepfather"), declined to discuss both the charges against him and my offer to tell his own version of events. He wrote to newspapers and magazines, gave interviews, where he denied William's statements that he allegedly "threatened, tortured, raped" his stepson. Therefore, the alleged behavior of Chalmer Milligan has been reconstructed from court records, supported by affidavits from relatives and neighbors, as well as from conversations I had on record with his daughter Chella, his adopted daughter Kathy, his adopted son Jim, his ex-wife Dorothy and, of course, with William Milligan himself.

Special recognition and thanks go to my daughters, Hilary and Leslie, for their help and understanding during the difficult days I collected this material, and to my wife, Aurea, who, in addition to the usual editing, listened to and organized several hundred hours of taped interviews. , which allowed me to quickly navigate them and, if necessary, double-check the information. Without her help and enthusiasm, the book would have taken many more years.

Foreword

The book is a factual account of the life of William Stanley Milligan by currently. For the first time in US history, this man was found not guilty of serious crimes due to the presence of mental illness namely, multiple personality disorder.

Unlike other cases, when in psychiatric and fiction described patients with dissociative identity disorder, whose anonymity was ensured from the very beginning by fictitious names, Milligan, from the moment of his arrest and charges, acquired the status of a publicly known controversial figure. His portraits were printed on the covers of newspapers and magazines. The results of his psychiatric examination were covered in the evening news on television and in newspapers around the world. In addition, Milligan became the first person with such a diagnosis, who was closely monitored around the clock in a hospital setting, and the results, which speak of a multiple personality, were confirmed under oath by four psychiatrists and a psychologist.

I first met twenty-three-year-old Milligan at the Mental Health Center in Athens, Ohio, shortly after he was sent there by court order. When he approached me with a request to talk about his life, I replied that my decision would depend on whether he had something to add to the numerous media reports. Billy assured me that the most important secrets of the personalities that inhabited him were still unknown to anyone, not even to lawyers and psychiatrists who worked with him. Milligan wanted to explain to the world the essence of his disease. I was skeptical about this, but at the same time I was interested.

My curiosity grew even more a few days after we met, thanks to the last paragraph of a Newsweek article called "Billy's Ten Faces":

“However, some questions remained unanswered: where did Tommy (one of his personalities) learn the art of escaping that would rival Houdini himself? Why did he call himself a “partisan” and a “gangster” in conversations with rape victims? According to doctors, Milligan may have other personalities that we have no idea about yet, and perhaps some of them committed crimes that have not yet been solved.

Talking alone with him during the psychiatric clinic's office hours, I saw that Billy, as everyone called him at that time, was very different from the balanced young man with whom I spoke on our first meeting. During the conversation, Billy stammered, nervously jerking his knees. His memories were scanty, interrupted by long gaps of amnesia. He managed only to utter a few general words about those episodes from the past about which he at least remembered something - vaguely, without details, and during the story of painful situations his voice trembled. After trying in vain to get something out of him, I was ready to give up.

But one day something strange happened. Billy Milligan fully integrated for the first time, and in front of me was another person, a fusion of all his personalities. The combined Milligan clearly and almost completely remembered all his personalities from the moment they appeared - all their thoughts, actions, relationships, hard experiences and funny adventures.

I say this at once so that the reader will understand how I recorded Milligan's past events, feelings and intimate conversations. All the material for the book is provided by Billy in moments of integration, his personalities, and the sixty-two people with whom he interacted on various occasions. life stages. Events and dialogue are recreated from Milligan's memory. Therapeutic sessions were recorded from videotapes. I didn't come up with anything myself.

When I started writing, one of the big problems was chronology. Milligan often “fell out of time” from childhood, he rarely looked at watches or calendars, often he had to awkwardly admit that he did not know what day of the week or even what month it was. In the end, I was able to reconstruct the sequence of events based on invoices, receipts, insurance reports, school records, work records, and numerous other documents provided to me by his mother, sister, employers, lawyers, and doctors. Milligan rarely dated his correspondence, but his ex girlfriend there were hundreds of his letters received during the two years that he was in prison, and there were numbers on the envelopes.

In the course of our work, Milligan and I agreed on two basic rules.

First, all people, places, and organizations are displayed under their real names, with the exception of three groups of people who needed to be protected by pseudonyms: these are other patients in psychiatric hospitals; criminals with whom Milligan had relationships both as a teenager and as an adult, against whom charges have not yet been filed and with whom I have not been able to interview personally; and three Ohio State University rape victims, including two who agreed to speak with me.

Secondly, in order to guarantee Milligan that no new charges would be brought against him, in case any of his personalities remembered crimes that could still be imputed to him, he gave me the right to "poetic liberties" in describing these events. On the other hand, those crimes for which Milligan had already been convicted are provided with details that no one knew about before.

Most of the people Billy Milligan met, worked with, or even fell victim to, ended up accepting the diagnosis of multiple personality. Many recalled some of his actions or words that forced him to admit: "He obviously did not pretend." But others continue to consider him a swindler, a brilliant deceiver who declared his insanity only in order to avoid prison. I tried to talk to as many representatives of both groups as possible - with everyone who only agreed to this. They told me what they think and why.

I, too, was skeptical about his diagnosis. Almost every day I leaned to one point of view, then to the opposite. But I worked on this book with Milligan for two years, and my doubts about his recollection of his own actions and experiences, which seemed simply unbelievable, were replaced by firm confidence, as my investigation confirmed their accuracy.

But this controversy still preoccupies the Ohio newspapers. This can be seen, for example, from an article published in the Dayton Daily News on January 2, 1981, three months after the last crime was committed:

“FRAUDER OR VICTIMS?

In any case, we will shed light on the Milligan case.

Joe Fenley

William Stanley Milligan is an unhealthy man leading an unhealthy life.

He is either a deceiver who fooled the public and got away with terrible crimes, or a real victim of such a disease as split personality. In any case, everything is bad ...

And only time will tell if Milligan left the whole world in the cold or became one of his most miserable victims ... "

Perhaps that time has come.

Athens, Ohio

Dedicated to all those who suffered from childhood abuse, especially those who are forced to go into hiding after that ...

THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN

Thanks

In addition to hundreds of meetings and conversations with William Stanley Milligan himself, this book is based on conversations with sixty-two people with whom he crossed paths in life. And although many appear in the story under their own names, I would like to specifically thank them for their assistance.

I also say “thank you” to everyone listed below - these people helped me a lot in the investigation, thanks to them the idea was born, this book was written and published.

I also want to thank and respect the two Ohio State University rape victims (who appear in the book under the pseudonyms Carrie Dryer and Donna West) for agreeing to provide a detailed description of their perception of the events.

I would like to say “thank you” to my agent and lawyer Donald Engel for his confidence and support in launching this project, and to my editor Peter Gethers, whose unquenchable enthusiasm and critical eye helped me organize the collected material.

Many agreed to help me, but there were also those who preferred not to talk to me, so I would like to explain where I got some of the information.

The comments, quotations, reflections, and ideas of Dr. Harold T. Brown of Fairfield Mental Hospital, who treated Milligan when he was fifteen, are gleaned from his medical records. Milligan himself clearly remembered meetings with Dorothy Turner and Dr. Stella Carolyn of the Southwestern Mental Health Center, who were the first to identify and diagnose him with a split personality. The descriptions are supplemented by affidavits given by him under oath, as well as testimonies from other psychiatrists and lawyers with whom they interacted at the time.

Chalmer Milligan, William's adoptive father (who was identified in the trial as well as in the media as "stepfather"), declined to discuss both the charges against him and my offer to tell his own version of events. He wrote to newspapers and magazines, gave interviews, where he denied William's statements that he allegedly "threatened, tortured, raped" his stepson. Therefore, the alleged behavior of Chalmer Milligan is reconstructed from court records, supported by affidavits from relatives and neighbors, as well as from my “on record” conversations with his daughter Chella, his adopted daughter Kathy, his adopted son Jim, his ex-wife Dorothy and, of course, with William Milligan himself.

Foreword

The book is a factual account of William Stanley Milligan's life up to the present day. For the first time in US history, this man was found not guilty of serious crimes due to the presence of a mental illness, namely a multiple personality disorder.

Unlike other cases where the psychiatric and fiction literature described patients with dissociative identity disorder, whose anonymity was ensured from the outset by fictitious names, Milligan, from the moment of her arrest and indictment, became a well-known publicly controversial figure. His portraits were printed on the covers of newspapers and magazines. The results of his psychiatric examination were covered in the evening news on television and in newspapers around the world. In addition, Milligan became the first person with such a diagnosis, who was closely monitored around the clock in a hospital setting, and the results, which speak of a multiple personality, were confirmed under oath by four psychiatrists and a psychologist.

My curiosity grew even more a few days after we met, thanks to the last paragraph of a Newsweek article called "Billy's Ten Faces":

Talking alone with him during the psychiatric clinic's office hours, I saw that Billy, as everyone called him at the time, was very different from the level-headed young man with whom I spoke on our first meeting. During the conversation, Billy stammered, nervously jerking his knees. His memories were scanty, interrupted by long gaps of amnesia. He managed only to utter a few general words about those episodes from the past about which he at least remembered something - vaguely, without details, and during the story of painful situations his voice trembled. After trying in vain to get something out of him, I was ready to give up.

I say this at once so that the reader will understand how I recorded Milligan's past events, feelings and intimate conversations. All of the material for the book comes from Billy's moments of integration, his personalities, and the sixty-two people he interacted with at various stages of his life. Events and dialogue are recreated from Milligan's memory. Therapeutic sessions were recorded from videotapes. I didn't come up with anything myself.

When I started writing, one of the big problems was chronology. Milligan often “fell out of time” from childhood, he rarely looked at watches or calendars, often he had to awkwardly admit that he did not know what day of the week or even what month it was. In the end, I was able to reconstruct the sequence of events based on invoices, receipts, insurance reports, school records, work records, and numerous other documents provided to me by his mother, sister, employers, lawyers, and doctors. Milligan rarely dated his correspondence, but his ex-girlfriend had hundreds of his letters received during the two years that he was in prison, and there were numbers on the envelopes.

Daniel Keyes

The Mysterious Case of Billy Milligan

Foreword

This book is an accurate account of the life of William Stanley Milligan, the first person in the history of the United States of America to be found not guilty of serious crimes by reason of mental disorder the defendant in the form of the plurality of his personality.

Unlike other people with multiple personalities described in psychiatric and popular literature, whose names are usually changed, Milligan became known to the general public from the moment he was arrested and put on trial. His face appeared on the front pages of newspapers and on the covers of magazines, the results of forensic psychiatric examinations were broadcast on evening television news. Milligan is the first patient with multiple personalities to be carefully examined while under 24/7 monitoring at the clinic. The plurality of his personality was confirmed under oath in court by four psychiatrists and a psychologist.

I first met a twenty-three-year-old young man at the Athens Mental Health Center, Ohio, as soon as he was sent there by court order. When Milligan asked me to write about him, I agreed to do it on the condition that he would provide me with more extensive and reliable material than the information that had appeared in print at that time. Billy assured me that until now the deepest secrets of his personalities were not known to anyone, including the lawyers and psychiatrists who tested him. And now he wanted people to understand his mental illness. I was rather skeptical, but interested.

A few days after our conversation, my curiosity increased. I saw an article in Newsweek entitled "Billy's Ten Faces" and noticed the last paragraph:

“However, the following questions remain unanswered: where does Milligan get the ability to run away like Houdini, demonstrated by Tommy (one of his personalities)? Why, in conversations with his victims, did he declare himself a "partisan" and a "hired killer"? Doctors think that there are other undiscovered personalities coexisting in Milligan and that some of them may have committed crimes that have not yet been solved.

Talking to him on subsequent visits to the psychiatric clinic, I found that Billy, as he was commonly called, was very different from the level-headed young man I had first seen. Now he spoke uncertainly, his knees shaking nervously. He suffered from memory lapses. About those periods of his past that Billy remembered poorly, he could only speak in in general terms. When the memories were painful, his voice often trembled, but at the same time he could not remember many details. After futile attempts to learn more about his past life I was ready to give up everything.

And then one day something amazing happened.

For the first time, Billy Milligan appeared as a whole person, discovering a new identity - a fusion of all his personalities. Such a Milligan clearly remembered almost everything about all his personalities from the moment they appeared: their thoughts, actions, relationships with people, tragic incidents and comic adventures.

I say this at the very beginning, so that the reader will understand why I was able to record all the events of Milligan's past life, his feelings and reasoning. I received all the material in this book from this whole Milligan, from his other personalities, and from sixty-two people whose paths crossed with him on different stages his life. Scenes and dialogue are recreated from Milligan's memoirs. The therapy sessions are taken directly from the videotape. I didn't invent anything.

When I started writing the book, we ran into one major problem - how to recreate the chronology of events. WITH early childhood Milligan often "lost time", he rarely paid attention to hours or dates and was sometimes puzzled by the fact that he did not know what day or month it was. I was eventually able to build a timeline using bills, insurance, school reports, job records, and other documents provided to me by his mother, sister, employers, lawyers, and doctors. Although Milligan rarely dated his correspondence, his ex girlfriend saved hundreds of letters he wrote to her during his two years in prison, and I was able to date them from the postmarks on the envelopes.

As we worked, Milligan and I agreed that we would abide by two basic rules.

First, all people, places and institutions will be named real names, with the exception of three groups of individuals whose privacy must be protected by pseudonyms. These are: other patients in a psychiatric hospital; unconvicted criminals with whom Milligan dealt as a teenager and as an adult and with whom I could not speak directly; and finally, three rape victims from Ohio State University, including two who agreed to answer my questions.

Secondly, to ensure that Milligan would not harm himself by reporting the crimes of others of his personalities for which he could still be convicted, we agreed that I would "fantasy" describing some scenes. At the same time, in the descriptions of the crimes for which Milligan has already been tried, details will be given that are still unknown to anyone.

Of those who met Billy Milligan, worked with him, or fell victim to him, most agreed with his diagnosis of multiple personality. Many of these people, remembering something he said or did, were eventually forced to admit, "He just couldn't be pretending like that." Others still consider him a clever rogue who fakes a mental breakdown to avoid prison. And among those and among others there were those who wanted to talk with me, express their opinion and explain why they think so.

I, too, was a skeptic. My opinion changes drastically almost every day. But in two recent years While working with Milligan on this book, the doubts I felt when the actions and experiences he recalled seemed incredible to me were dispelled, as my investigation showed that all this was true.

Yet the controversy continues in the Ohio state press, as evidenced by an article in the Dayton Daily News of January 2, 1981, three years and two months after the last crimes were committed:

“CRAFTER OR VICTIMS?

MILLIGAN'S TWO POINTS OF VIEW

William Stanley Milligan - complex man, presenter difficult life. He is either a crook who deceives society and escapes punishment for serious crimes, or a real victim of his many personalities. Either way, it's bad...

Only time will tell whether Milligan was a crook who fooled the whole world, or one of the saddest victims of this world ... "

I guess that time has come.

Athens, Ohio January 3, 1981

Milligan's personalities

These are the ones who became known to psychiatrists, lawyers, police and the press during the trial.

1. William Stanley Milligan (Billy), 26 years. "original source" or "core"; the individual, hereinafter referred to as "undecayed Billy" or "Billy-N". Dropped out of school. Height 183 cm, weight 86 kg. Blue eyes, brown hair.

2. Arthur, 22 years old. Englishman. Reasonable, balanced, speak in a British accent. He independently learned physics and chemistry, studies medical literature. Fluent in reading and writing Arabic. A firm conservative, considers himself a capitalist, nevertheless openly expresses atheistic views. The first to discover the existence of all other personalities. In safe situations, he dominates, deciding which of the "family" to appear in each case and own Milligan's mind. Wear glasses.

3. Rajen Vadaskovinich, 23 years old. Keeper of Hate. The name is composed of two words (Bagen = rage + again - rage again). Yugoslav, speaks English with a noticeable Slavic accent. Reads, writes and speaks Serbo-Croatian. A weapon-wielding, karate-specialist, he possesses exceptional strength, restrained by his ability to control his adrenaline rush. Communist, atheist. He considers it his calling to be the protector of the "family" and in general of all women and children. Takes possession of consciousness in dangerous situations. Communicated with criminals and drug addicts, he is characterized by criminal, and sometimes sadistically cruel behavior. Weight 95 kg. Very large Strong arms, long black hair, hanging mustache. draws black and white drawings because he is colorblind.

4. Allen, 18 years. Rogue. Being a manipulator, he is the one who most often deals with strangers. Agnostic, his motto is: "Take the best of life." He plays the drum, draws portraits, and is the only person who smokes cigarettes. Is in good relations with Billy's mother. The height is the same as that of Billy, although the weight is less (75 kg). She wears her hair in the middle (right). The only one of them all is right-handed.

Dedicated to all those who suffered from childhood abuse, especially those who are forced to go into hiding after that ...

THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN

Thanks

In addition to hundreds of meetings and conversations with William Stanley Milligan himself, this book is based on conversations with sixty-two people with whom he crossed paths in life. And although many appear in the story under their own names, I would like to specifically thank them for their assistance.

I also say “thank you” to everyone listed below - these people helped me a lot in the investigation, thanks to them the idea was born, this book was written and published.

Many agreed to help me, but there were also those who preferred not to talk to me, so I would like to explain where I got some of the information.

Chalmer Milligan, William's adoptive father (who was identified in the trial as well as in the media as "stepfather"), declined to discuss both the charges against him and my offer to tell his own version of events. He wrote to newspapers and magazines, gave interviews, where he denied William's statements that he allegedly "threatened, tortured, raped" his stepson. Therefore, the alleged behavior of Chalmer Milligan is reconstructed from court records, supported by affidavits from relatives and neighbors, as well as from my “on record” conversations with his daughter Chella, his adopted daughter Kathy, his adopted son Jim, his ex-wife Dorothy and, of course, with William Milligan himself.

Foreword

My curiosity grew even more a few days after we met, thanks to the last paragraph of a Newsweek article called "Billy's Ten Faces":

When I started writing, one of the big problems was chronology. Milligan often “fell out of time” from childhood, he rarely looked at watches or calendars, often he had to awkwardly admit that he did not know what day of the week or even what month it was. In the end, I was able to reconstruct the sequence of events based on invoices, receipts, insurance reports, school records, work records, and numerous other documents provided to me by his mother, sister, employers, lawyers, and doctors. Milligan rarely dated his correspondence, but his ex-girlfriend had hundreds of his letters received during the two years that he was in prison, and there were numbers on the envelopes.

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