Billy Milligan—Marlene

Marlene’s relationship with Billy Milligan develops through a series of approaches, withdrawals, and returns, as her affection meets the divided knowledge and conflicting rules of the personalities who take control of him. She comes to care for the man she knows as Billy, but neither his feelings nor his conduct remain consistent from one encounter to the next. The ring Tommy gives her suggests a commitment at the very moment that arrest threatens to separate them again.

First Encounters and Attraction

Allen meets Marlene at a party hosted by Barry Hart, whom he had encountered downtown after following Arthur’s instruction to socialize. Walt Stanley introduces them as Billy Milligan and Marlene. After Stanley wanders off, she and Allen spend nearly an hour talking about the other people at the party. Allen finds her warm and amusing, senses that she is attracted to him, and feels drawn to her dark eyes. Yet he believes Arthur’s rules mean the attraction cannot lead anywhere.

Marlene’s next visit begins on different terms. She has contacted Barry Hart, learned that Kevin has an apartment, and called to see him because she remembers their conversation at the party. Kevin does not understand what she is referring to, but welcomes her in. They spend the evening looking at his paintings and talking about people they know. Marlene is glad she made the first move and feels close to him; when she prepares to leave, Kevin asks her to come again, and she agrees if he wants her to.

That intimacy crosses a boundary in a way neither Kevin nor Allen understands afterward. After Kevin sells marijuana and calls Marlene, she visits because Barry has told her he is dealing drugs. Kevin reassures her, kisses her, and draws her close. As their bodies touch, Adalana wishes Kevin away from control, seeking the holding and tenderness she needs. She knows Arthur has imposed celibacy on the men and warned that a violation could make one of them undesirable, but she has never accepted the rule for herself. Because Arthur has not discussed sex with her, she assumes he would not suspect her breach. The next morning Allen wakes without knowledge of what happened; the money in a drawer worries him, but he cannot reach Arthur, Tommy, Ragen, or anyone else for an explanation. For Marlene, the evening belongs to an intimate encounter; for the personalities who later surface, its meaning and memory are divided.

A Relationship Seen from the Outside

When Allen moves into a clean one-bedroom apartment on Roosevelt Avenue, he is astonished that Marlene appears, though he has not seen her since the party. He decides she is not his type and wants nothing to do with her. She nevertheless begins coming by after work, making dinner, and spending part of the evening before returning to her parents’ home. To Allen, her growing presence complicates the arrangement. When she becomes affectionate, he leaves control rather than engage, without knowing which personality has been courting her or feeling invested in the answer.

Marlene interprets the same household differently. She sees Billy’s foul language, sudden rages, tenderness, humor, and articulate conversation, as well as moments when he becomes clumsy and helpless, like a little boy. At first these changes shock her; gradually she thinks he needs someone to look after him and attributes the instability to drugs and the people around him. She hopes that persuading him Barry Hart’s friends are exploiting him will help him leave that circle. Her explanations make his volatility legible as a problem she might help solve, even as the changes themselves exceed what she understands.

His warnings about other people who might come looking for trouble unsettle her. He refers to a family, and she initially takes this as boasting about Mafia connections. A signal makes the claim seem more credible: whenever she is in the apartment, he places a painting in the window to tell the others she is there and should not be disturbed. Their physical relationship also contains a contrast she cannot resolve. What begins with rough talk and foul language turns into tenderness, but she suspects that his passion is partly performed and that he never truly reaches a climax. She is uncertain, yet loves him and decides that time and understanding may be enough.

Separation and Return

Marlene continues to visit after moving with the personalities into a three-bedroom duplex in Somerford Square. She comes each evening after work at Hecks department store; when Allen works the second shift, she waits until around midnight and stays much of the night, returning to her parents’ home before morning. Meanwhile, Billy grows moodier and less predictable. He may smash things, stare at a wall in a trance, or paint furiously, yet remain a soft-spoken and considerate lover. Marlene’s daily presence does not steady the internal order: Tommy is missing work and time, and the personalities are entering another confused period of switching.

Arthur blames the disorder on Marlene and insists the relationship end. Tommy, who has fallen in love with her, wants to object but is too afraid of Arthur and knows he has already come close to violating the rules. Arthur nevertheless decides that Marlene must go. The conflict is not simply between a couple: one personality’s attachment is constrained by another personality’s authority, and the person Marlene loves cannot reliably speak for or remember the whole of Billy’s experience.

Marlene later recalls the frightening evening that leads to their first breakup. They argue, and she thinks he is acting strangely because he is on drugs. He lies on the floor, angry, holding a gun and turning it on his finger while pointing it at his own head. He does not point it at her; her fear is for him. She sees him fixate on a fish-cord lamp, get up, and shoot it, shattering the lamp and leaving a hole in the wall. Her recollection gives the separation a concrete danger, but it does not turn her against him: she is frightened for Billy rather than for herself.

Two weeks later, during a period of confusion among the personalities, Tommy uses the disruption to call Marlene and tell her that some of her belongings are still in the apartment. She comes after work; they talk through the evening, and she begins dropping in regularly again. Their return to the old pattern is also evidence of the unstable internal governance Arthur had sought to impose: Ragen blames the recurrence on Arthur’s inability to control the family.

Engagement and Interruption

After Billy is implicated in the sale of drugs stolen from the Gray Drug Store, the police receive information connecting him to the stolen supply and issue an arrest warrant. On the Monday Marlene comes to the apartment after work, Tommy gives her an engagement ring, addressing her by his pet name for her and telling her that if anything happens to him, he will always love her. The gift makes a long-hoped-for future suddenly tangible, but his words make it sound endangered rather than secure.

Marlene is surprised and moved, yet the ring also hurts: she wonders whether he bought it because he expects something to happen to him. She tries not to show her tears and resolves to stand by him regardless of what he has done or what others do to him. Her calendar records the engagement on January 20, 1975. The following day, authorities arrest Danny, another personality through whom Billy’s divided identity is made visible in the narrative. The account thus closes this stage of the relationship not with a settled life together, but with Marlene’s promise of loyalty and an abrupt separation imposed by the arrest. Across their courtship, the recurring mismatch between her continuing attachment and Billy’s discontinuous awareness makes the engagement both an expression of love and a fragile commitment made under threat.