Billy, who was affected by the shocking events he experienced as a child and struggled with psychological problems by experiencing the effects of these throughout his life, was put on trial for the crimes committed by his different personalities and caused many firsts in the history of law.
While even having 2 personalities is a devastating experience, you will shudder as you read the story of this man with 24 personalities.
She had troubled parents: alcohol, gambling, divorces, depression, suicide. . .
His comedian father, Johnny Morrison, was a gambling addict and an alcoholic. Johnny, who was hospitalized for depression and alcoholism where he attempted suicide but was unsuccessful, later committed suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide.
After the incident, Billy’s singer mother, Dorothy, moved in with her ex-spouse with their children. She broke up with him a year later and married a troubled man, Chalmer Milligan.
Billy had 3 different personalities even when he was only 5 years old.
Personalities named “The Nameless Boy”, “Christiene” and “Shawn” were formed, and the number of personalities would increase as the traumas in his family increased.
His stepfather Chalmer, who was on trial for “abuse of police”, allegedly sexually abused 8-year-old Billy. Because of this, the psychological problems in Billy were increasing.
These traumas led Billy to crime. At 20, she spent two years in correctional institution for armed robbery and rape.
He raped 3 more women 7-8 months after his release. “He was acting like a 3-year-old,” one of his victims said of him. Billy was later charged with rape of 4 women, kidnapping 3 children and 3 major robberies. Thereupon, he was admitted to the reformatory again.
The court postponed sentencing because Billy was diagnosed with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder.
He was first diagnosed with acute schizophrenia, then multiple personality disorder was diagnosed by a different doctor. He was admitted to a mental hospital. After that, Billy was transported back and forth through many government asylums.
It turned out that he had 24 different personalities during his years in the hospital. Of these, 1 was himself, 10 were personalities he wanted, and 13 were personalities he did not want.
He spent 10 years in mental hospitals, and then the court did not punish him; because it was their alternate personalities, most of whom were unaware of each other, who committed the crimes. Therefore, this decision is actually a first in its field.
He was 36 when the risk of mental hospital and prison was over. He was not involved in any crime after that. He disappeared 5 years after his release. In 2014, it was revealed that he died of cancer in a nursing home at the age of 59.
The individual characteristics of Billy’s 24 personalities:
1) Billy: Himself.
2) Arthur: He was a sophisticated and intellectual Englishman, proficient in science and health.
3) Ragen Vadascovinich: Ragen, whose name means “rage again”, was someone who controlled “undesirable personalities”, controlling Arthur in dangerous moments. He said he was a Yugoslav who could speak with a Slavic accent and write Serbian. He admitted that he had committed the robberies to support his family, but had nothing to do with the rapes.
4) Allen: He was a swindler and had the most contact with the outside world. He played the drums and painted portraits. Although he was only right-handed, he was extraordinarily strong and was the only person to smoke.
5) Tommy: He was 16 years old and was often mistaken for Allen. He was an expert in electricity. Like Allen, he was a painter and involved in music. He also played the tenor saxophone.
6) Danny: Fearing people, especially men, Danny was a painter who only painted still lifes. According to Danny, Chalmer (abusive stepfather) had his own grave dug and burned there.
7) David: He was 8 years old. He was a personality who felt the pain and suffering experienced by other personalities.
8) Christiene: She was 3 years old and dyslexic. Billy was the kind of girl who wanted to hide in a school corner whenever he got into trouble. Arthur had taught her to read and write to Christiene, who had a special bond with Ragen.
9) Christopher: He was Christiene’s brother who played the harmonica.
10) Adalana: Adalana, who wrote poems and cooked for other personalities and cleaned the house, was a lesbian. According to Milligan’s lawyer, Adalana was the perpetrator of the rapes and neither Billy nor the other personalities knew about these rapes.
Billy’s “unwanted” personalities:
Arthur and Ragen were deciding whether personalities were “undesirable.”
11) Phil: He spoke with a Brooklyn accent, a murderer who occasionally contemplated petty crimes.
12) Kevin: Kevin was a crime planner and had plotted to rob a pharmacy.
13) Walter: He was from Australia. He had killed a crow. Very good sense of direction, often used as a lookout.
14) April: He had the thought of killing his stepfather Chalmer. He had persuaded Ragen of this, but Arthur talked to him and dissuaded him at the last moment.
15) Samuel: Samuel, a Jew and the only person to believe in God among personalities, was marked as “undesirable” because he had sold the personal pictures of others.
16) Mark: He was described as a bearer of everything. When he was bored, he would stare straight at the wall.
17) Steve: He was a trickster and a parody comedian. He was making jokes about family problems.
18) Lee: He was joking enough to get his family in trouble. He was sentenced to solitary confinement for one of his jokes.
19) Jason: It was the pressure regulator. Although he used it for his family at first, this situation caused a lot of problems over time.
20) Bobby: He had dreams of pursuing adventure and fixing world crises, but he had no ambition to pursue them.
21) Shawn: He was a deaf 4-year-old boy who felt vibrations in his head from buzzing sounds.
22) Martin: He was from New York. He was a snob who wanted to make money without working.
23) Timothy: After he started dating a gay man while working in a flower shop, he went to his own world.
24) Teacher: This character was not “unwanted”. What made him special was that he was a combination of all the other personalities, knowing their actions and thoughts. Billy’s doctor says this personality is the smartest and most fascinating person he has ever known.
The 2017 movie “Split” is partially based on the story of Billy Milligan.
The director of the movie, M. Night Shyamalan, said that he was inspired by a book about Billy. In the movie, James McAvoy plays Kevin Wendell Crumb, who is in therapy for dissociative identity disorder and lives with 24 different personalities.
If you are curious about the details of Billy’s story, you can read the book “The Minds of Billy Milligan” and watch the documentary “Monsters Inside Me: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan” on Netlix.
Sources: 1, 2, 3
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