1979

In the book, 1979 is marked by a struggle over where Billy Milligan should be held and how his mental illness should shape his legal status. A hearing appearance by The Teacher is followed by Milligan’s transfer to Lima State Hospital, a separate ruling against reopening his Gray Drug Store robbery plea, and a December order finding him mentally ill and in need of hospitalization. The year’s proceedings distinguish the question of Milligan’s present condition and treatment from the separate question of his responsibility for an earlier offense.

September: The Teacher Appears

On September 17, the day of a hearing at the hospital, the writer recognized The Teacher in Billy Milligan by his knowing smile, clear-eyed expression, and nod. They clasped hands and spoke privately before other people arrived. The moment made the hearing day also a personal encounter: Milligan was present, but the narrator understood the person he was meeting to be The Teacher.

That recognition stands in contrast to the formal process unfolding around Milligan. The scene does not itself resolve his legal or medical status; instead, it gives the year’s institutional proceedings a visible human dimension, as a familiar relationship resumes within the setting of a hearing.

October: Transfer to Lima

The transfer followed an incident at Ward 5. Chief Cremeans testified that Milligan had been prevented from entering a car and then ran over a hill with Gus Holston. Three men subdued Milligan and brought him back to the ward. After hearing this evidence, Judge Jones granted the attorney general’s request to send him to Lima.

At two o’clock on October 4, Billy Milligan was handcuffed and secured with a belt restraint for the 180-mile drive to Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He had no time to say goodbye to anyone except Dr. David Caul. The distance, restraints, and abrupt departure made the transfer a decisive change in his confinement, not simply a change of address. The following day, public comments welcomed the decision; Mike Stinziano said he would continue monitoring the case to ensure Milligan was not released from a maximum-security facility while considered a threat to society.

A Separate Ruling on the Gray Drug Store Plea

The day after the transfer, Judge S. Farrell Jackson ruled on Billy Milligan’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea in the Gray Drug Store robbery case. The offense at issue dated to March 27, 1975, but the ruling came in 1979 and addressed whether the plea could now be vacated. Jackson placed the burden of proving insanity on Milligan and found that the evidence did not establish, by a preponderance, that he had been insane, unable to assist in his defense, or unable to understand the plea when he entered it. The motion was denied.

The ruling concerned Milligan’s mental state and legal capacity at the time of that earlier plea; it was distinct from the proceedings over his continued hospitalization. Alan Goldsberry appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio, arguing that Jackson had improperly weighed the opinions of four psychiatrists and a psychologist against the solitary opinion of Dr. Brown. The appeal carried the disagreement over how expert evidence should be assessed beyond the trial court.

November Review and December Order

On November 30, Milligan’s review hearing was held behind closed doors at the Allen County Courthouse in Lima. The public and media were excluded, although television cameras waited outside. Billy Milligan sat in handcuffs between his attorneys. Dorothy Milligan, Del Moore, and the writer were admitted as observers, alongside legal and institutional representatives. Judge David R. Kinworthy reviewed the history of commitment hearings beginning with the December 4, 1978 finding that Milligan was not guilty by reason of insanity, and said the current hearing was being conducted under the relevant provisions of the Ohio Revised Code.

The writer’s access to Milligan had also been restricted. Hospital officials initially said they suspected the writer of bringing drugs to Milligan; the explanation later changed to the view that visits were not therapeutically advisable. The shift in stated reasons accompanies a hearing process in which contact, observation, and institutional control remained consequential, even as Milligan’s condition was being reviewed in court.

Judge Kinworthy took the matter under advisement, with Milligan to remain at Lima while he considered it. On December 10, the court found that Milligan had a substantial disorder affecting thought, mood, perception, orientation, and memory, seriously impairing judgment, behavior, and his ability to recognize reality. It identified his condition as multiple personality. The order also found grounds for hospitalization: threats of suicide indicated substantial risk of harm to himself, recent violent behavior indicated risk to others, and the court concluded that he would benefit from treatment and needed it because his behavior posed a grave and imminent risk to his own and others’ rights.

The Year’s Legal and Clinical Distinctions

The sequence in 1979 does not reduce to a single verdict about Milligan. The Gray Drug Store ruling addressed whether he had been capable of understanding and entering a guilty plea in 1975. The review hearing, by contrast, addressed his condition and need for hospitalization at the time of the proceedings. The December findings treated diagnosis, risks, and need for treatment as related but separately stated grounds for continued commitment.

The year therefore shifts the focus from a past plea to the immediate consequences of Milligan’s illness: where he would be confined, who could see him, and whether the court considered hospitalization necessary. The transfer to Lima and the December order leave that question answered, at least for the period covered by these proceedings, in favor of continued hospital custody.