Bob Reinert

Bob Reinert is the Lebanon prison art instructor who recognized Billy Milligan’s ability as a painter and made room for it within a program that did not ordinarily include oil painting. His importance lies in practical acts rather than a formal therapeutic role: he found supplies, set up an easel, allowed Milligan to paint regularly, and helped sustain an artistic routine in a prison setting shaped by restriction.

Identity and Institutional Setting

Reinert appears in the account as the thin, wiry man in charge of the prison’s graphic-arts room. The room was busy with silkscreens, lettering, cameras, and a printing press; oil painting was not part of its program and was generally not done there. His role was therefore not simply to teach an established activity. He had discretion over whether Milligan’s particular skill could be accommodated in a workshop organized around other kinds of work.

The encounter came after Milligan had spent eleven months in protective isolation, with periods of movement back and forth from the psych range. In August, Warden Dallman told him he could return to the prison population and proposed work in Reinert’s art class, pointing to the pencil sketches covering his cell wall. Milligan was identified as Allen in the preceding account, but the next day the narrative follows Tommy into the graphic-arts room. That shift in names belongs to the book’s presentation of Milligan’s inner identities; Reinert responds to the person who arrives to paint, rather than turning the encounter into a discussion of those identities.

Making Space for Oil Painting

For the first few days, Tommy sat in the room without much interest in what was happening around him. Reinert asked what he wanted to do. Tommy said, “I’d like to paint. I’m good at oils.” When Reinert observed that the prisoners did not do oil painting, Tommy replied, “That’s what I do.” The brief exchange sets the terms of their relationship: the program’s established limits meet a direct statement of ability, and Reinert chooses to investigate whether those limits can be worked around.

He took Milligan to look for materials rather than dismissing the request. An opportunity had arisen because the graphic-arts project at the Chillicothe Correctional Facility had recently closed. Oil paints, canvases, and stretchers from that project had been sent to Lebanon prison. Reinert helped Milligan set up an easel and gave him the chance to begin. The supplies were available through an institutional transfer, but they became usable for Milligan because Reinert made the practical arrangements and allowed the unusual activity to proceed.

Half an hour later, Tommy brought him a landscape. Reinert was surprised by both the speed and the quality of the work, remarking, “Milligan, I’ve never seen someone paint so fast. And it’s good.” Tommy explained, “I had to learn to paint fast if I wanted to be able to finish anything.” The exchange gives the speed a history without detailing it: painting quickly was a way to complete work. Reinert’s astonishment marks the moment when a request that might have seemed outside the class becomes visible evidence of a practiced ability.

Work, Recognition, and Exchange

Reinert allowed Milligan to paint Monday through Friday, even though oil painting was outside the usual curriculum. The arrangement lasted because Reinert understood that Milligan was most at ease with a brush in his hand. His decision did more than provide occasional access to materials; it established a regular place and time for painting within the prison’s ordinary week.

The landscapes drew admiration from prisoners, guards, and some administrative staff. Milligan produced quick paintings for barter and signed those “Milligan”; other works were made for himself. He could send personal paintings out of the prison when his mother or Marlene visited. These different uses show the work moving through distinct relationships: some pictures circulated as exchange, while others remained his own and could be carried beyond the institution by visitors. Reinert’s permission enabled both forms of activity without making them identical.

The art room also became a meeting place for Reinert and Dr. Steinberg. The doctor began dropping in to ask Milligan’s advice about his own painting, and Milligan showed him how to handle perspective and how to paint rocks so they appeared underwater. On weekends, Dr. Steinberg came to the prison on his own time, had Milligan brought out of his cell, and painted with him. Knowing that Milligan hated prison food, he brought submarine sandwiches or bagels with cream cheese and lox. Reinert’s workshop thus supported not only solitary production but also an exchange in which Milligan could teach and contribute expertise.

Restrictions and Departure

The access Reinert made possible remained vulnerable to the conditions of confinement. One weekend, Milligan told him, “I wish I could paint in my cell.” The wish points to the boundary around the work: the art room offered sustained opportunity, but painting was still tied to permission and location. Later, at the Athens hospital, Milligan’s contract restricted access to paint supplies to limited periods under supervision, and the completed paintings had to be removed weekly. At the Dayton Forensic Center, he was not allowed to paint. These later rules do not establish Reinert’s involvement in those decisions, but they make clear that artistic practice depended on the institution granting space and materials.

When Milligan was finally allowed to leave the prison, Reinert came to see him off. Dr. Steinberg also appeared and gave Milligan money as final payment for one of his paintings. Allen was eager to leave while Milligan’s mother spoke with the doctor, but Reinert’s presence registers a separate, practical connection: the painting had been paid for, and the instructor came to mark the departure. Across the art-room episode, his contribution is measured in concrete permissions and encounters—an easel, salvaged supplies, weekday access, attention to the work, and a final visit—rather than in claims that he could overcome the restrictions of prison life.