William Stanley Milligan: The Criminal Whose Story Nearly Turned Tom Holland's Life Upside Down

William Stanley Milligan, also known as The Campus Rapist, was an American who became popular during a widely publicized court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. Before being apprehended for three rapes at Ohio State University, William Milligan had committed multiple serious crimes, including armed robbery.

Early Life and Background

Born as William Stanley Morrison on February 14, 1955, in Miami Beach, Florida, William Stanley Milligan, later known as Billy Milligan, had a tumultuous childhood marked by abuse and instability.

His father, Johnny Morrison, struggled with alcoholism and depression, eventually dying by suicide when Milligan was just five years old. His mother, Dorothy, moved the family back to Ohio, where she remarried Chalmer Milligan. It was at this point that William Stanley Morrison became William Stanley Milligan.

Psychiatrists later suggested that the abuse Milligan suffered at the hands of his stepfather, Chalmer, led to the splintering of his personality at a young age. By the time he was five years old, Milligan reportedly had three distinct personalities.

The Crimes

On October 14, 1977, Billy Milligan committed a heinous crime by approaching an optometry student in a parking lot on Ohio State University's campus, where he threatened her with a gun and then forced her to accompany him to a secluded area in the woods, where he raped her.

After the assault, he made her write and cash a check for him. Shockingly, Milligan went on to rape two more victims within the next eight days. However, his criminal spree came to a halt after one of the victims identified him from a collection of mug shots.

Interestingly, Milligan had been arrested before in 1975 for rape and armed robbery, and his fingerprints matched those found on one of the victim's cars.

During the investigations, investigators began to observe some things about Milligan. His victims reported that he spoke with different accents and provided differing stories about his identity.

Moreover, investigators noted that Milligan seemed to embody multiple personalities, calling himself Phil, claiming to be Jewish, and even telling one victim that he was a member of the far-left militant organization, the Weather Underground.

Sometimes, he would even speak with an accent. Ultimately, a psychiatric evaluation would provide an explanation for Milligan's unusual behavior.

The Trial and Diagnosis

During the preparation of his defense, Milligan underwent psychological examinations. The doctor diagnosed him with acute schizophrenia, and later, psychologist Dorothy Turner diagnosed him with dissociative identity disorder.

This diagnosis was groundbreaking at the time, as Milligan was the first person diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder to raise such a defense.

His lawyers pleaded insanity, claiming that two of his alternate personalities committed the crimes without Milligan being aware of it. This led to Milligan being acquitted of a major crime for this reason, instead spending a decade in psychiatric hospitals.

Life After Release

After a decade in psychiatric hospitals, Milligan was released in 1988. He was discharged from the Ohio mental health system and the Ohio courts in 1991. Later, he moved to California, where he owned Stormy Life Productions and planned to make a short film.

Milligan's life was the subject of Daniel Keyes's award-winning non-fiction book "The Minds of Billy Milligan" and its follow-up "The Milligan Wars". His story brought attention to the complexities of dissociative identity disorder and the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system.

Milligan died of cancer at a nursing home in Columbus, Ohio, on December 12, 2014.

Tom Holland Played Milligan

Tom Holland said that his role in The Crowded Room was so bad for his mental health that he's now going to be taking one year away from acting. Over the course of nine months, he was playing a character based on the infamous serial r-apist, 22-⁠year-⁠old Billy Milligan.

Tom Holland said playing this character sent him into a really dark place, and he had trouble shaking him off even after the series wrapped filming.

At one point, he said he had a full -⁠blown meltdown because he started seeing parts of himself in the character. He wanted to shave his head to try to get rid of him, but he wasn't able to do that.

References:

Monsters Inside: did Billy Milligan use his 24 personalities to get away with murder?

Where Is Billy Milligan, The First Person To Successfully Use Multiple Personalities As A Legal Defense, Now?

Billy Milligan