How many 'alters' did Billy Milligan have? Netflix special is deep dive on rapist
The curious case of Billy Milligan has intrigued people time and again. Despite the fact that he raped three women in 1977, he was not imprisoned because of his insanity plea. It has been said that he suffered from multiple personality disorder. As dramatic as it may sound, it was true. Reports also claimed that Milligan was the first person in the history of the US to successfully use multiple personality disorder as a defense for a violent crime.
Not just that, one of the three women from the Ohio State University campus area whom Milligan abducted and then raped in October 1977 had said that he had a German accent. The claim was in contrast with the fact that Milligan was born in Florida and brought up in Circleville and Lancaster. Another victim stated that the rapist was nice and if circumstances were fine, she might have dated him.
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How many personalities did Billy Milligan have?
Though Milligan’s birth name was William, it had been claimed that 24 different people were living inside of him. The names of those people included Ragen Vadascovinich, Arthur, Allen, Tommy, Danny, David, Christene, Christopher, Adalana, Phil, Kevin, Walter April, Samuel, Mark, Steve, Lee, Jason, Bobby, Shawn, Martin, Timothy, and The Teacher — reportedly a total of 24 "alters" or alternate personalities.
As per reports, the first rape of 1977 happened on October 14, 1977, when Milligan kidnapped a woman at gunpoint from the Ohio State University campus. He took her to a wooded area where he sexually assaulted her and after that, he had forcibly taken money from her. The second and third rapes happened on October 22 and October 26 respectively in the same year. However, one of the victims soon identified his face out of a group of mug shots.
Milligan had earlier been convicted of rape. He also went to prison for robbery before being paroled in April 1977. So after one of his fingerprints on file matched with a print discovered on one of the victim’s cars, he was taken into custody by Columbus and Ohio State University Police Department (OSU) police.
Elliot Boxerbaum, then the OSU police investigations supervisor, who drove Milligan to Columbus police headquarters, had explained his personality disorder. He said, “I couldn’t tell you what was going on, but it was like I was talking to different people at different times.” In addition, a psychiatric report noted, “A 23-year-old Yugoslavian named Ragen had taken over Milligan’s consciousness and decided to rob some people. But before Ragen could rob anyone, a 19-year-old lesbian named Adalana took over Milligan’s body and raped the women because she wanted to feel close to someone. The other personalities, including ‘Billy,’ had no memory of that.”
Terry Sherman, one of the attorneys assisting Franklin County prosecutors on the case, initially did not believe the multiple personality disorder thing. Bernard Yavitch, the other prosecutor, then watched Milligan’s interview. Yavitch claimed, “I saw multiple personalities. His speech pattern was different, his accents were different. He sat different ways in the chair.”
Dr George Harding, the widely respected medical director of Harding Hospital in Worthington, also confirmed that Milligan did infact suffer from multiple personality disorder. Though evidence proved that he committed all three rapes, it was also established that he was not responsible for them. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jay Flowers found him not guilty due to insanity and instead of awarding him prison time, ordered him to be admitted to the Athens Mental Health Center in the southeastern Ohio college town. In December 2014, he died at Mount Carmel East Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. But whether he was a criminal or a victim still remains unclear.
Netflix is revisiting the case of Milligan through a documentary, titled ‘Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan’. It will be airing on Wednesday, April 22.
