Billy Milligan
About
Criminal charged with armed robbery and multiple rapes, some of which occurred on the campus of Ohio State University. He spent two years incarcerated before being released in 1977. He was arrested again before the end of the year for the Ohio State rapes, and it was the resulting trial that would gain national attention. He was ordered to undergo a close psychological examination, which lead to a diagnosis of acute schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. Ten personalities were initially discovered, although an additional fourteen would later be diagnosed by an unlicensed psychiatrist. He was eventually granted an insanity defense and spent ten years in state-run psychiatric facilities. After his release in 1991, he formed Stormy Life Productions and spoke of making a short film. None of this ever came to fruition, and he lost touch with all of his known contacts. He died of cancer at the age 59, having lived out his remaining years in a nursing home.
Before Fame
By 1975, he was incarcerated in Ohio.
Trivia
He was the first person to be acquitted of major crimes based his diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder.
Family Life
He was the son of Dorothy Pauline Sands and Johnny Morrison. He was born in Miami Beach, Florida, the second of three children. His brother, Jim, was born in 1953. In 1956, his sister Kathy Jo was born. Their father struggled with depression, alcoholism and gambling, which contributed to his suicide in January of 1959. His mother, who was a singer, remarried Chalmer Milligan, who had been accused by his first wife of gross neglect. Billy would later accuse Chalmer of abuse, which came up during his trial.
Associated With
His life story was the subject of The Minds of Billy Milligan, a non-fiction novel written by Daniel Keyes.
