Was Billy Milligan the subject of a CIA mind control experiment? π§΅
The story of Billy Milligan is reasonably well known and has been covered to death, so I'm only going to focus on the material pertinent to this thread. I highly suggest reading The Minds of Billy Milligan for a full account. The Netflix series is decent but lacking.
In short, Billy Milligan was tried for the rape of three women, as well as kidnapping and robbery in 1977. He faced up to 200 years in prison if convicted, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity after it was determined that he suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder.
Milligan was diagnosed with MPD (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder) by Dr Dorothy Turner. Cornelia Wilbur (of Sybil fame) was called in to consult and concurred with the diagnosis. All in all, there were 24 separate personalities.
And here it already gets weird. Despite the prosecutors declarations of an air tight case, they fully went along with the insanity plea. They offered no expert witnesses to refute the multiple personalities. In fact, they didn't call a single witness or offer closing arguments.
And just like that,Milligan became the first person in US history found not guilty of major crimes due to multiple personalities. You'd think a precedence setting case such as his would be met with a bit more pushback, but the prosecutors rolled over to the doctors of the defense
Even now, if you watch the Netflix series, prosecutor Yavitch still claims to this day that he's disappointed in losing the case and figured they had it in the bag. His actions during the trial, however, don't speak to this at all.
Going to back up a bit to Milligan's life before the rapes. His biological father, Johnny Morrison, was a comedian and MC. A depressive alcoholic strapped with gambling debt, Morrison killed himself when Billy was four years old.
His mother Dorothy remarried (a previous husband), got divorced, and married Chalmer Milligan. They adopted each other's children and that's the way they became the Milligan Bunch.
According to Billy, his siblings, and his mother, Chalmer was an abusive man who liked to take it out on Billy in particular. Aside from standard beatings, it's alleged he would hang Billy up by his fingers, at least once buried him alive, and raped him in his family's barn.
Much like Candy Jones, this trauma, and the compartmentalization of it, is where the multiple personalities originated. Chalmer was never tried and denied the accusations until his death.
Milligan, much like Lee Harvey Oswald and David Ferrie, had been involved with the Civil Air Patrol as a child. No other details are given about it in the book, but this timeline suggests some time in the mid 60s.
Interesting to note that David Ferrie began his service with the Civil Air Patrol in Cleveland, Ohio, a few hours from where Milligan grew up. Ferrie had moved on to New Orleans by the time Milligan would have been involved.
Let's take a quick look at the proposed uses of multiple personalities by the CIA, while keeping in mind that Milligan had been to see several psychiatrists growing up, as well as being housed at an Ohio "boys camp" for rehabilitation after a run in with some prostitutes at 17.
And here's what George Estabrooks had to say about the functions and benefits of employing an agent with multiple personalities.
So ideally, you want a few things.
Personality A is a normal citizen who knows nothing of the others.
Personality B is tasked with the operations, be they assassination, infiltration, etc, and doesn't know of the others.
Personality C knows everything.
Personality A is a normal citizen who knows nothing of the others.
Personality B is tasked with the operations, be they assassination, infiltration, etc, and doesn't know of the others.
Personality C knows everything.
Obviously, this is a very simplistic breakdown. Sometimes only two would be needed, sometimes more. Billy is working with 24 total, although only really a few matter.
Now consider that one of Milligan's personalities ran drugs and guns to "prominent people", and also attempted to join (infiltrate) a local communist group before being overtaken by a loyal capitalist personality.
Also consider during one of the abductions/rapes, Milligan urged his victim to tell the police he was Carlos the Jackal, a communist from Venezuela who carried out a number of assassinations and bombings in the mid 70s.
This was a year after the Patty Hearst trial.
This was a year after the Patty Hearst trial.
After his trial, Milligan was sent to Athens Mental Health Center under the care of Dr David Caul. Previously called the Athens Lunatic Asylum, it had been famous for performing lobotomies at that time.
An attempt was made on Milligan's life while at Athens.
While under Caul's care, Milligan was subjected to hypnotherapy.
An insanely talented artist, Milligan painted a very interesting picture of Caul while there.
An insanely talented artist, Milligan painted a very interesting picture of Caul while there.
Fun fact, years later Caul would go on to co-write a lengthy series on government mind control, linked here:
dmc.members.sonic.net
dmc.members.sonic.net
This is all really only scratching the surface, honestly. Milligan was also connected to the disappearances of two men, Dwaun Cox and Michael Pierce Madden. Neither have been found. On his deathbed, he allegedly told his sister he had killed people.
The names of his victims have never been released, so there's no avenue for investigation there as of yet. There's also scant details about the "Youth Camp" he was sent to, so that's something else I need to dig more into.
And obviously none of this is to say I disbelieve that he had DID, because I do.
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