Hi guys, welcome back.
As you can tell from the title, for today’s
episode, we will be discussing about a solved
case which involves multiple personality disorder,
or better known as DID.
Polly Newton was a twenty-one-year-old student
at Ohio State.
She had been abducted behind her apartment
near the university campus at about 8am on
the 26 October 1977.
After she parked her boyfriend’s car, she
was forced back inside and told to drive out
to an isolated area in the countryside, where
she was raped.
Her assailant then made her drive back to
Columbus to cash two checks, before having
her drive him back to the campus area.
However, this was not the first case of rape
and armed robbery that had happened.
Within a span of 10 days, 3 cases had occurred,
and Polly was the third victim.
The first victim was a 25-year-old optometry
student, and the second victim was a 24-year-old nurse.
All of the victims were driven to countryside,
raped, made to cash in cheques and then robbed.
According to the statements provided by the
victims, the culprit was described to be a
white American man, between the age of 23
and 27.
The man had a reddish brown hair and appear
to weigh between 175 and 185 pounds.
He was wearing a brown top, jeans and a pair
of white sneakers when committing the crimes.
As the police believed that there was a possibility
that the culprit was a repeat offender, they
provided Polly with mugshots of male sex offenders
to see if anyone of them was the culprit.
Halfway through the tray of photographs, Polly
was positive that she had identified the man.
The man was none other that William Milligan,
better known as Billy.
22-year-old Billy Milligan was actually an
ex-convict who had been arrested for a drugstore
robbery that had happened 2 years ago.
6 months before the rape/robbery cases, he
had been released on parole.
He was immediately arrested when it was found
that his fingerprints matched those that were
found in Polly’s car.
When Billy was brought to the station for
questioning, he appeared to have no recollection
of what he had done.
Billy even asked if he had hurt anyone and
if he did, he was sorry.
Back in the 1970s, multiple personality disorder
was not a common diagnosis in the medical
field.
So when Billy denied the charges, the police
thought that he was trying play innocent.
While searching his house, the police realised
that there was something strange.
It appeared as though there was more than
1 person living in that house.
In certain areas of the house, it was extremely
neat and tidy.
However in other areas, it was the exact opposite.
Enough evidence were being found to send Billy
for trial.
Billy was later being handcuffed and brought
to a van which will transfer him to the Franklin
County Jail.
Upon reaching the destination, the officer
saw that Billy had slipped out of his handcuffs,
and was looking confused in the van.
According to the prisoners that were on the
same van, Billy had removed the handcuffs
himself.
In the Jail, Billy tried to
kill himself on multiple occasions.
One time, he tried to smash his head into
his cell wall.
To prevent future suicide attempts, Billy was
being moved to a single cell and was being
put in a straight jacket.
Later in the afternoon, the police and medic
were shocked to see that Billy, who was fast
asleep, had removed his straight jacket and
using it as a pillow.
Noticing something strange with Billy, the
public defender’s office ordered for Billy
to undergo psychological evaluation.
The first interview happened on 31 Jan 1978,
with the psychologist, Dorothy Turner.
The first question that Dorothy asked Billy
was his social security number, which Billy
replied with, ‘I don’t know’.
Dorothy then looked down at her notes and
read off a number.
This time, Billy replied that that was not
his number, and that that was Billy’s number.
Dorothy, who was feeling confused then proceeded
to asking him who he was.
He replied saying that his name was David.
Dorothy then asked him, ‘Where is Billy?’
David pointed to his chest and said that Billy
was sleeping in there.
Dorothy tried to tell David that she
would like to speak with Billy.
However, David rejected her request and said
that Arthur would not wake Billy up, because
if he did, Billy would kill himself.
According to David, there is a spot with a
big white spotlight, where all of the personalities
will gather around, and whoever is in the
spot will hold the consciousness.
Usually, Arthur would be one in-charge of
deciding who will be the one taking the spot.
However, under dangerous circumstances, Ragen
would be the one deciding.
Throughout the series of interviews, Dorothy
met and talked to many different personalities.
Firstly, there is Billy, which is the so called
‘original’ personality, he was a high-school
dropout.
Next, Arthur, the one in-charge of the spot.
He is an educated Englishman and spoke with
an upper class British accent.
He studies biology, physics, chemistry, and medical
books.
Then we have Ragen, who is considered the
‘keeper of hate’ and has an extraordinary
strength.
He is a karate expert and is proficient with
weapons.
The 4th personality is Allen, who is a conman.
He is the one who most often deals with outsiders.
Next is Tommy, who was both an escape artist
and electronics expert.
He was the personality who removed the handcuff
and straight jacket mentioned previously.
Number 6, Danny.
He is afraid of men and enjoys painting still
life.
Next is David, the ‘keeper of pain’.
He appears when the personalities experience
pain and hurt.
Then we have Christopher.
He speaks with a British accent and plays
the harmonica.
Number 9, Christene.
She is the youngest personality among the
24 and is the sister of Christopher.
She can read, but has dyslexia.
Number 10, Adalana.
She is a lesbian and she is the one who keeps
the house for the others.
Billy has 13 other personalities who are suppressed
by Arthur because they possess undesirable
traits.
This means that they are not allowed to take
the spot and control the body.
Because of time constraint, we will not go
in depth with these personalities.
However, I do have to mention Kevin.
He was the one who committed the drugstore robbery 2
years ago, in 1975.
So he was the personality that landed Billy
in jail.
The last personality does not have a name,
he is referred to as ‘Teacher’ by the
other personalities.
He was the one who taught Tommy electronics
and escape, taught Arthur biology, physics
and chemistry and taught Ragen about weapons
and how to control adrenaline for maximum
power.
He also taught the personalities how to draw
and paint.
The teacher is the only one with a complete
memory.
Usually when the personalities lose consciousness,
they will experience a gap in memory.
But this wasn’t the case for the teacher.
Now, back to Billy, although he was the original
one, he was never the core personality.
This is because he had been asleep ever since
his 16th birthday.
According to Ragen, Billy was suffering from
depression and even tried to jump off the
roof in school.
Luckily, Ragen took over the spot before Billy
could do so.
Ever since then, in order to keep Billy safe,
Ragen and Arthur kept Billy asleep.
Also, Billy did not know about his multiple
personality disorder, he knew nothing about
the other 23 personalities.
He only knew about them when he was receiving
his treatment.
Let’s get back to the case itself.
Arthur spoke to Ragen about the case and according
to Arthur, Ragen started to commit robberies
because he was worried about the unpaid bills.
Because of the disorder, whenever Billy got a job, he would get
fired within a few days
So what Ragen did was that, he would select
the victims and bring them to an isolated
area.
He admits to robbing the three women in October,
but he denies raping them.
When Adalana took the spot and gain consciousness,
she confessed to Dorothy, saying that she
was the one who stole the time from Ragen and
raped the victims.
The reason for doing so was because she was
desperate to be held and loved.
After Adalana leaves the spot, Ragen would
then retake the spot.
The next thing he find is the money in his
pocket.
Because his time was being taken away, he
would have a memory gap.
He then brought the money back home.
However, when he got home, his time was being
taken over by Tommy.
Tommy, not knowing where the money came from,
spend it away.
So the next time when Ragen took over the
time, the money would have disappeared.
Ragen would then choose another victim to
commit robbery.
The entire process would then repeat and it
repeated 3 times.
Billy was found not guilty, but he had to
undergo treatments before he could be released.
He was the first person in the United States
with this disorder who was found not guilty
of his crimes by reason of insanity.
After 10 years of treatment, all of the personalities
were united into 1, and that is the teacher.
He was declared to be totally cured in 1991.
Billy then died at the age of 59, due to cancer
on December 12, 2014.
