A serial rapist who targeted college students became a topic of national interest after mental health experts successfully claimed in court that he was the host of two dozen prominent people and was not therefore not responsible for his crimes.
Billy Milligan raped three Students at Ohio State University in 1977. His violent spree ended when one of his victims managed to identify him from thexisting police photos of sex offenders. He was paroled a few months before his attack, after serving a sentence for rape and theft in 1975.
When arrested for the serial rapes, Milligan said he had no recollection of the assaults. In addition, his personality and manners seemed to change drastically and constantly.
“A parade of psychiatrists” then diagnosed her with multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder), and ultimately determined that as many as 24 distinct “multiples” existed in her mind, according to the Netflix docuseries “Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan “Striking the streaming service on September 22.
It’s a case that caught America’s attention as Milligan’s defense team claimed he couldn’t be held responsible for the sexual assaults because the rapist was not his essential self. Rather, he was one of the many personalities that his body harbored. As the docuseries note, the disorder is usually attributed to extreme childhood trauma. As a young boy, Milligan suffered sadistic abuse from his stepfather.
Milligan’s personalities differed in demeanor and even had different accents. There was Arthur, a sophisticated expert in science and medicine, out of Ohio WBNS reported in 2014. When he came out, Milligan would speak with a British accent. Then there was Ragen Vadascovinic, the “Guardian of Hatred”. He had a Slavic accent. Quirks also varied in age and gender, including an 8-year-old David and Christine, 3 years old.
While the claim of several prominent figures was controversial and groundbreaking at the time, the jury believed it was sufficient to find Milligan not guilty by reason of insanity. That made him the very first no one in American history has successfully used multiple personality disorder as a defense for violence in court. Later, Psychiatrist Dr Dorothy Lewis has testified as an expert witness for several murderers, including serial killer Arthur Shawcross in 1990. His work has since been widely criticized and Dr Park Dietz, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, who has consulted with both the FBI and CIA, claimed under oath during Shawcross’s trial that he felt Lewis was inviting Shawcross to play various roles.
Many people now believe that Milligan was also playing roles.
After his trial, Milligan spent years in a mental institution while remaining a source of public wonder as people tried to determine the truth: Was he actually controlled by Mr.multiple personalities or was he just looking for a way out of responsibility for his crimes?
Interviews with Milligan’s family, friends, doctors and investigators attempt to get to the bottom of the story in “Monsters Inside,” which also focuses on his complicated post-trial life.
Milligan began selling his psychiatric ward paintings for over thousands of dollars. He also became the subject of a 1981 book titled “The Minds of Billy Milligan ” written by the bestseller “Flowers for Algernon, ”author Daniel Keyes. Both resulted in a talk about the morality of criminals profiting from their infamy. A hospital has also been criticized for allegedly favoring Milligan and for granting him unattended leave just two years after the rapes, the Columbus Expedition Reported in 2007.
Milligan was sent back and forth between low and high security institutions because he turned out to be a security risk, reinforcing some speculation that he was a manipulative sociopath. He escaped from the Ohio Central Mental Hospital in 1986, before creating videotapes for local media to complain about the hospital. He worked in a spa company in Washington State while on the run.
Did he also kill someone while on the run? “Monsters Inside” also explores this possibility. While living as Christopher Carr in Bellingham, Washington, Milligan was the last person to be seen with his neighbor Michael Madden, alive. Madden, 33, disappeared in 1986 after an argument with Milligan over his disability checks. Some investigators, Milligan’s friend and even his siblings have told the producers of “Monsters Inside” that they think he may have killed Madden.
He was arrested in Miami months later, according to the Dispatch.
Milligan was released from all psychiatric wards in 1988 after psychiatrists determined that Milligan’s personalities had merged and he had come to himself. He was released from all surveillance in 1991.
But his case still invited the public’s fascination. He moved to California to work with directors James Cameron and Joel Schumacher on a future film that was never made, according to the Dispatch. Leonardo DiCaprio was one of many great actors who were considering playing Milligan and as of 2015, DiCaprio was still pursuing the role, according to the Hollywood reporter. Earlier this year, actor Tom Holland was scheduled to play Milligan in an upcoming series called “The Crowded Room,” Deadline reported.
In 1996, a California judge found Milligan unable to run his own affairs. He was sued for royalties he earned on “The Minds of Billy Milligan” to recoup $ 120,000 out of nearly half a million dollars spent on his treatment over the years, the Dispatch reported. He declared bankruptcy in San Diego in the late 1990s.
From 2000 to 2014, Milligan kept an extremely low profile, WBNS reported in 2014.
He died in a Columbus hospital of cancer in 2014 at the age of 59, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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