The Minds of Billy Milligan

Driving home one evening, Allen parked at a roadside rest stop and fell asleep briefly, after which Danny woke up instead. Danny headed to the men’s room, waiting for one of the adults to take over and drive back, and narrowly escaped being sexually assaulted by two men inside. Ragen emerged to defend Danny, breaking both men’s bones, stealing their belongings, and destroying their car before driving off again.

The following week, Phillip, who was technically banished, told one of Milligan’s coworkers, Wayne Luft, about what happened at the rest stop. The two discussed how some gay men supposedly hang about such stops at night, and made a plan to attack and rob them. Luft and Phillip drove to one of the stops at night and spotted a car parked outside, with two men inside. When the men followed Phillip into the washroom, Phillip and Luft attacked and robbed them before dropping them off on a deserted country road.

Phillip told Kevin about this “perfect crime,” and Kevin bragged about it to Milligan’s family at Christmas. Concerned, Kathy searched Milligan’s apartment and found the men’s credit cards and licenses, which Kevin had stolen. She told the rest of the family, and Jim contacted one of the men, using the information on the license, and learned what had happened.

Jim and Kathy confronted Kevin at the apartment on Christmas Eve, and Kevin nonchalantly admitted to what happened. However, he turned furious when he learned that Kathy and Jim had gone through his belongings. A tussle between the brothers brought out Ragen, who reacted violently to Jim, and Jim and Kathy left. Allen turned up at Dorothy’s place the next day for Christmas and learned about the robberies and the fight with Jim. To keep Milligan safe, Allen’s family decided to dispose of the evidence and move Milligan to a different apartment.

Kevin orchestrated a drugstore robbery with Luft and another colleague, and then took off with the money and the drugs on his own. Marlene read about the robbery in the papers the next day and suspected Milligan, but Tommy indignantly denied any involvement. However, Allen got nervous and told Arthur, and with some detective work, Arthur figured out what Phillip and Kevin had done. The police eventually traced and arrested Milligan, and Dorothy once again obtained a bail bond. Arthur learned that they were being charged for the rest-stop robberies as well. Expecting “shock probation,” Arthur decided that they ought to plead guilty to the charges of robbery (the drugstore) and aggravated robbery (the rest stops). While Milligan received shock probation for the latter, he was sentenced to two to five years for the former and sent to Lebanon, where Ragen took control.

At Lebanon, with Arthur’s coaching, Allen talked his way into getting assigned on work detail to the prison hospital. In addition, Allen connected with the medical director there, Dr. Harris Steinberg, over their shared love for painting. Arthur enjoyed working in the lab, while Allen began bartering and dealing cigarettes.

“Lee,” a comedian and practical joker, emerged for the first time while Milligan was in prison, and for a time he was helpful, as Milligan’s fellow prisoners appreciated the laughs. However, his practical jokes sometimes crossed the line, and when one of them backfired and almost got Milligan hurt in a conflict with another prisoner, Arthur classified Lee as an undesirable and banished him. “Steve,” a mimic and a braggart, was banished for similar reasons, when his imitation of one of the wardens got Milligan sent to isolation for 10 days. “Bobby,” a daydreamer who had fantastical hopes, was banished by Ragen for not being useful in prison.

The anxiety of being in prison intensified the mix-up time for Milligan, and his letters to Marlene featured erratic and unpredictable thoughts. He was put in protective isolation for months at a time, after which, because of his artistic talents, he was sent to work in the graphic arts class. Seeing Tommy’s ease and skill with oil paints, Mr. Reinert, who ran the classes, arranged for Milligan to paint in his cell. Upon Arthur’s urging, Allen took English, math, and art classes offered by the community college at the prison, obtaining good grades in them all. Almost two years after Milligan arrived at Lebanon, he was finally released on parole.

Shortly after his release from Lebanon, Milligan broke up with Marlene, moved out of Dorothy’s place, and got a job as an apartment maintenance man, which included accommodation. A couple weeks into the new job, Ragen became aware of Phillip and Kevin’s existence. Arthur explained to Ragen that the two undesirables were products of Ragen’s mind, aggressive and violent “selves” without Ragen’s goodness. Arthur emphasized the importance of their making new friends and building a better life so that Phillip and Kevin wouldn’t get in touch with their old criminal friends and slip back into their destructive ways.

At first, things went well, as Tommy was able to handle the maintenance work with ease. However, the mix-ups started intensifying again, and when someone other than Tommy showed up and was unable to complete simple tasks, Allen and Tommy, suspecting they were about to be fired, decided to collect some dirt on their supervisors to ensure their job security. Tommy bugged his boss’s offices, and when he was let go, Allen claimed to have information on illegal activities at the management company that was running the apartments.

While Allen was able to briefly intrigue and intimidate his bosses, nothing much came of it; after he was unsuccessful in finding another job and was evicted from the apartment, he sank into a depression and disappeared. Ragen appeared instead, and when he realized that they were running out of funds, he decided to commit a robbery. After downing some amphetamines and vodka, and armed with a gun, Ragen headed to the Ohio State University campus.

Ragen arrived on campus with no plan except to rob someone and get some cash. He saw a young woman in the university parking lot but turned away, not wanting to rob a woman; however, Adalana replaced him and, using the gun, forced Carrie Dryer into her car and drove away. Adalana kept losing control to Phillip and Kevin. They finally stopped near railway tracks north of the campus. Kevin made Carrie take her pants off, and Adalana raped Carrie, desperate to feel closeness again the way she had with Marlene. Afterward, not wanting Ragen to get suspicious, Adalana made Carrie write and cash a check for $400. They drove back to the city, and Adalana left Carrie in the middle of traffic, warning her not to give the police Milligan’s description. Ragen took over again and, finding the money in his pocket, deduced that he must have robbed someone. He went back home and fell sleep, and Arthur woke up to find the money but no memory of how it got there. He used it to pay some bills and buy groceries.

Tommy, Allen, and Arthur alternated in taking control the rest of the week; the former two spent time with Milligan’s family. Ragen woke up a few days later, thinking he had just gone to sleep, and found the money missing. He set out again for the university campus and saw Donna West, a nurse, in the parking lot; again he turned away but Adalana replaced him and forced Donna to drive to a deserted location. Adalana and Phillip kept switching, the latter telling Donna his name before raping her. Afterward, as with Carrie, Adalana made Donna cash checks worth a couple hundred dollars before having Donna drop her back near the parking lot again and heading home. Ragen arrived home with no memory of the robbery once again and went to sleep; Allen woke up and found the cash, and he and Tommy used it to buy art supplies.

When Ragen woke up and found the cash missing a second time, he was furious and set out to rob someone again. At the campus, he spied Polly Newton in the parking lot and, desperate this time, decided to rob a woman after all. After he forced Polly into her car, Adalana again replaced Ragen, directing Polly to drive them to a deserted country road. Adalana began to rape Polly, but when the latter screamed at Milligan not to rape her, Adalana remembered the things Chalmer did to David, Danny, and Billy, and stopped, exclaiming, “Bill, […] what’s wrong with you? Get yourself together” (331). Adalana made Polly drive back and cash checks worth a couple hundred dollars, but Phillip, Tommy, and Allen kept switching, each getting confused about where they were. Allen finally had Polly drop him off at campus, begging her not to give the police his description.

Back home, Ragen announced to the others they were not to touch the money he robbed to pay bills, when Arthur revealed that he already paid them with the first round of cash Ragen stole. Confused about the events of the past couple weeks, Arthur ordered everyone to stay home for a few days so that they could figure out who had been stealing time. A couple days later, David woke up with the sense that something was very wrong; following Arthur’s advice on what to do if he found himself in trouble, David called the police and gave them his address, claiming that “[s]omebody is doing bad things around here” (334). Danny took over and began to paint; shortly thereafter, the police arrived and arrested Danny, who had no idea what was happening.