1978

The year 1978 marked a change in the legal and clinical questions surrounding William Stanley Milligan. Early assessments addressed whether he could understand proceedings and help his lawyers; the trial later considered whether mental illness had deprived him of responsibility when the charged acts occurred. Between those questions, Milligan was transferred from jail to Harding Hospital, examined by clinicians, and presented in court through accounts that did not agree on what had happened.

Evaluation and Fitness to Assist in His Defense

In January, public defenders Gary Schweickart and Judy Stevenson continued visiting Milligan in prison despite his letter dismissing them. The public defender’s office funded a psychological evaluation, and clinical psychologist Dr. Willis C. Driscoll administered tests on January 8 and 13. Milligan scored 68 on intelligence tests, but Driscoll cautioned that depression had lowered the result. He diagnosed acute schizophrenia and described severe difficulty distinguishing self from surroundings, voices that commanded and berated Milligan, and beliefs that good and bad people entered his body. Driscoll concluded that Milligan could not adequately understand events or counsel his lawyers and urged hospitalization.

On January 19, Schweickart and Stevenson presented Driscoll’s report to Judge Jay C. Flowers as evidence that Milligan could not assist in his own defense. The judge directed the Southwest Community Mental Health Center’s forensic psychiatry unit to examine him. The order raised a separate concern: the defense feared that information disclosed in a court-ordered examination might later be used against Milligan. Schweickart pressed for the interviews to remain privileged, while prosecutors Terry Sherman and Bernie Yavitch opposed that restriction. The dispute nearly brought the defense lawyers into contempt before the parties reached a compromise: prosecutors could question Milligan about incriminating statements from the examination only if he testified in his own defense. The lawyers then allowed the evaluation to proceed on those terms.

Transfer to Harding Hospital

On March 16, two days earlier than scheduled, Milligan was transferred from the Franklin County Jail to Harding Hospital. Dr. George Harding had prepared a therapy team but was away at a meeting in Chicago, so staff physician Dr. Shoemaker took charge until his return. Judy Stevenson and Dorothy Turner followed the police car, concerned that a return to jail would be especially difficult for Milligan.

The women accompanied him to Wakefield Cottage, a locked unit for fourteen patients needing constant observation and personal attention. Milligan was placed in a special-care room, one of two rooms with heavy oak doors and peepholes for continuous observation. After lunch, Turner encouraged him to let Arthur come forward and meet members of the staff, saying she wanted the team to witness the multiple-personality presentation directly. The unit coordinator had been briefed, but the other two nurses were surprised. The transfer thus placed Milligan in a treatment setting while also making the reported changes in identity part of what hospital staff could observe.

Trial, Conflicting Accounts, and Responsibility

During discussions of trial strategy, Arthur proposed changing the plea: Ragen would accept punishment for the three robberies but not plead guilty to rape. Arthur relied on Adalana’s account, which maintained that the women cooperated, were not injured, had opportunities to leave, and received some money back. Judy Stevenson disputed that account by pointing to the women’s testimony. The exchange exposed a conflict between the internal account offered through Arthur and the complainants’ descriptions; the proposed plea did not make that conflict disappear.

At the trial, the defense presented stipulated medical evidence rather than asking for closing arguments. Judge Flowers dismissed the first rape count, citing a lack of corroborating evidence and the absence of a similar modus operandi. For counts two through ten, he found that the medical evidence established mental illness at the time of the offenses, an inability to distinguish right from wrong, and an inability to refrain from the acts. With no evidence presented to the contrary on those points, Flowers found Milligan not guilty by reason of insanity on those counts. The ruling addressed criminal responsibility at the time of the acts; it was distinct from the earlier question of whether Milligan could participate in his defense.

After the Verdict and the Limits of Diagnosis

After the verdict, Dr. David Caul told Milligan that the court had found him not guilty and that the hospital did not regard him as a criminal. Caul framed the next task as treatment and progress, including working with Billy and bringing himself together. The language marked a shift from the case’s courtroom determination to the work expected of Milligan in the hospital, without treating acquittal as the end of his care.

The year’s records also retained evidence that could later be read in light of changing psychiatric knowledge. Two electroencephalograms were taken two weeks apart in May 1978 by different physicians while Milligan was being examined under court order at Harding Hospital. In a 1982 author’s note, Daniel Keyes described those reports as puzzling and discussed later research by psychiatrist Dr. Frank W. Putnam Jr., who reported measurable differences in brain-wave activity and other physiological characteristics among personalities in diagnosed subjects. That later research did not itself resolve the 1978 case, but it shows how records made during the examination period acquired new significance as the understanding of multiple personality continued to be debated.