December 18, 1978, UNITED STATES EDITION SECTION: JUSTICE; Pg.

106 LENGTH: 790 words HEADLINE: The Ten Faces of Billy BYLINE: JERROLD K. FOOTLICK with JON LOWELL in Columbus BODY:

Christene is a loving 3-year-old who likes to draw pictures of flowers and butterflies. David is a withdrawn little boy who bangs his head against the wall when upset. Adelena is a young lesbian. These distinct personalities, along with at least seven others, presented a bizarre puzzle in a Columbus, Ohio, courtroom: they all exist within the same individual - William Milligan, 23, who was accused of rape. Last week, after a brief trial, the ten faces of Billy were found not guilty by reason of insanity. Milligan's is the first known U.S. case in which a defendant has been acquitted of a major crime because he possessed multiple personalities.The disorder stems from a troubled mind's effort to disperse emotional problems among invented persons. Each of Milligan's personalities understands the difference between right and wrong, which is the standard legal test of insanity. But seven different psychiatrists and psychologists concluded that as a whole person, Milligan is not responsible for his actions. 'I'm David': The Milligan case started when four women were raped last year near the Ohio State campus. An anonymous tip to police - the call might have come from one of Milligan's "personalities" - led to his arrest. During a jail house interview, psychologist Dorothy Fuller began routinely by asking if he were William Milligan. "Billy's asleep," came the reply. "I'm David." Fuller suspected that Milligan was a multiple personality. Defense lawyers consulted pshychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur, whose exploration into the sixteen personalities of "Sybil" led to a best-selling book and television movie. Milligan displayed the classic background of a multiple personality, Wilbur found. He is bright and creative - several of his personalities show a talent for art - and he had been abused as a child Prosecutor Bernard Yavitch requested the opinion of prominent Columbus psychiatrist George Harding Jr. "I approached it skeptically," Harding says. "But in the end, there was no question." Innocence: Finally conviced, prosecutor Yavitch visited the four victims,

who listened quietly and accepted the diagnosis. When the case went to trial, defense counsel admitted that Milligan had committed the rapes, and the prosecutor did not challenge the psychiatric testimony. After less than three hours, Judge Jay C. Flowers announced his verdict of innocence."I had no alternative," he says. Milligan is the illegitimate son of night club comedian who committed suicide when Billy was a child. Throughout his boyhood, Billy says, he was sexually abused by his stepfather (a charge the stepfather denies). In a statement read into the court record, psychiatrist Stella Karolin said: "[His stepfather] abused Billy sexually and threatened to bury him alive if he told his mother. He even buried the child, leaving a pipe over his face for air . . . Before he shoveled the dirt off the child, he urinated through the pipe onto the child's face.) At about the age of 9, psychiatrists believe, Billy's personality shattered. One of his two females, the lesbian Adelena, is thought to be the "personality" who committed the rapes. Besides Adelena, little Christene and David, and the core personality Billy, there are: Arthur, an intellectual who speaks in clipped British phrase. Although most of Milligan's other personalities have taken IQ tests (the scores range from 68 to the 130s), Arthur refuses to be tested because it is beneath his dignity. Ragan, an aggressive male with a Slavic accent who considers himself the others' protector. He threatened to fire the lawyers. Allen, 18, who plays the drums and is the only personality who smokes. Danny, 14, and Christopher, 13, both timid and seldom seen. Tommy, who enlisted in the Navy, but was dishonorably discharged after a month.For a interivew with his lawyer, Milligan was strapped into a straitjacket. Tommy casually slipped the jacket off in about ten seconds. The doctors strongly doubt that Milligan - or any other defendant so inclined - could invent such multiple personalities. "It's an extremely involved condition," Wilbur says. Milligan is now at a state mental hospital, and Wilbur is optimistic about his recovery. So is Milligan's sister Kathy. "His artwork is so beautiful - he's got to be able to do something with that," she says.

Questions: There remain, however, unanswered questions: How did Milligan learn the Houdini-like escape skill demonstrated by Tommy? What about his conversations with his rape victims in which he claimed to be a "guerrilla" and a "hit man"? Doctors think that Milligan may have personalities yet unfathomed - and that some of them may have committed undiscovered crimes. GRAPHIC: Picture, A splintered psyche: Milligan, Columbus Ohio Dispatch; Illustration 1, with Christene's art; Illustration 2, and Billys art, Columbus Citizen Journal