1981

The year 1981 brought Billy Milligan no settled return to treatment in Athens: instead, hearings and appeals challenged the terms of his confinement while his institutional placement continued to change. The year’s central contradiction was that a court recognized a serious denial of procedural rights in his transfer to maximum-security care, yet concluded that the error did not require reversing the outcome.

Confinement and the April Hearing

At the beginning of the year, Milligan was at the Dayton Forensic Center, where he read, wrote, and sketched but was not permitted to paint. Mary, a young outpatient he had met during his first months in Athens, had moved to Dayton and visited him daily. He hoped that his 180-day hearing would persuade Judge Jay C. Flowers to send him back to Athens, where Dr. David Caul could resume treatment. His hope rested on the possibility of leaving maximum security and returning to a setting where he believed treatment could help him regain a more integrated state.

The hearing took place on April 3. Four psychiatrists and two mental-health professionals testified; only Dr. Lewis Lindner, a physician at Lima who had not seen Milligan for five months, recommended that he remain in maximum security. Judge Flowers deferred his decision. The delay left Milligan’s placement unresolved, while newspapers published prominent stories and editorials opposing a move back to Athens. The case was therefore being shaped not only by clinical testimony, but also by a public dispute over where he should be housed.

Appeal and the Limits of the Ruling

On April 21, the Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio reviewed the order that had sent Milligan to Lima State Hospital. It found that the transfer had taken place without notice to Milligan or his family and without giving him a chance to attend a hearing, consult counsel, call witnesses, or otherwise exercise the rights associated with a full hearing. The court characterized this procedural failure as a fatal violation requiring reversal of the transfer order and restoration of his prior position.

That finding did not secure his return to a less restrictive setting. The appeals court concluded that the error was not prejudicial because a hearing in Allen County had found, on evidence the appeals court presumed adequate, that Milligan was a danger to himself and others. The ruling thus distinguished between a violation in the process and the separate question of whether the state had grounds to keep him in maximum security. In practical terms, recognition of the procedural defect did not undo the confinement it had authorized.

Seclusion and Transfer to Columbus

In the period before his next transfer, a patient told the book’s narrator that Milligan had volunteered for seclusion because he feared he might hurt someone and jeopardize a move to Columbus. According to that account, four security guards restrained him and beat him. When the narrator next saw Allen on August 27, Allen’s left arm and hand were visibly impaired, and his left leg was bandaged. The account presents the seclusion and assault as reported events, distinct from the subsequent transfer itself.

On September 22, 1981, Milligan was transferred by wheelchair to the Central Ohio Regional Forensic Unit. The move did not end the legal and institutional conflicts surrounding his care. Shortly afterward, the Department of Mental Health sued him for $50,000, seeking payment for involuntary hospitalization and treatment at Athens, Lima, and Dayton. His attorneys countersued, seeking damages for murals he had painted at Lima State Hospital and alleging physical abuse and malpractice. The countersuit was denied, while the state’s suit remained pending. By year’s end, 1981 had brought a new placement and continuing litigation, but no resolution of the tension between treatment, security, and Milligan’s rights as a patient.