‘The Crowded Room’ is based on a disturbing true story
With episode 7, The Crowded Room finally reveals the big twist that’s crucial to the core of understanding the drama series and its brooding protagonist, Danny Sullivan. Danny (Tom Holland) was arrested for a 1979 shooting in New York City, and he’s been unfurling his mysterious backstory to a patient but probing listener, Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried). But at long last, the pieces of his story begin to come together as it’s revealed that Sullivan suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
In her first meeting with Sullivan, Goodwin — skeptical about how the police have characterized him — attempts to get him to recall details about two missing people, Ariana and Yitzhak, as well as about his childhood. He’s frustrated and overwhelmed by his ability to remember, and Goodwin is stymied by his lack of answers, but at the same time, there’s a tenderness conveyed, and her desire to help is made clear. As their conversations continue throughout the episodes, the audience becomes a party to a revelation that’s not only shocking but also based on real-life events.
Whether you’re caught up on the show, have been totally immersed, or are still thinking about diving in, we’ve got the facts about this stranger-than-fiction story.
Who is the character of Danny Sullivan inspired by?
The Crowded Room is inspired by the true story of Billy Milligan, the subject of a 1981 non-fiction book by Daniel Keyes called The Minds of Billy Milligan. (If Milligan’s name sounds familiar, it could be because Netflix also dropped a docu-series about him in 2021, Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan.)
In 1977, at the age of 22, Billy Milligan was arrested for the kidnapping, robbery, and rape of three women on the campus of Ohio State University, all of which took place between October 14 and October 26. Milligan had been paroled earlier that year after already serving time for rape and robbery.
After Milligan’s face was selected out of a series of mug shots by one of the Ohio State victims, he was imprisoned, assigned a public defender, and given a series of psychiatric evaluations. It was during these sessions that Milligan told investigators that it was his other personalities who committed the crimes. Milligan said “Ragen,” a 23-year-old with a Slavic accent lacking in empathy, had robbed the women, and “Adalana,” a 19-year-old lesbian, had raped them. Overall, psychiatrists determined that Milligan had 10 personalities and suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder.
On December 4th, 1978, Milligan was the first American acquitted of a crime by pleading a DID defense.
What is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?
DID is a diagnosis most commonly activated by trauma in early childhood, in which one disconnects from themselves or their environment to distance themselves from the experience(s) of trauma. In Milligan’s case, the stressor was believed to be the sexual and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, Chalmer Milligan. This abuse was confirmed by Billy’s other family members but denied by Chalmer, who died in 1988.
The criteria for a DID diagnosis requires the existence of two or more personality states, or distinct identities with their own behavior, thought patterns, and memories, as well as gaps in memory about events and personal information. The symptoms of DID must also lead to distress and problems in daily functioning. The primary treatment for DID patients is psychotherapy, as well as psychiatric medication such as antidepressants.
In the media — like Split, Fight Club, and The Crowded Room —those with DID have been depicted as violent, when, in fact, there is no known association between the diagnosis and an increased instance of criminal or violent behavior. It’s more likely that those living with DID will harm themselves, as opposed to those around them.
Many, even those in the medical community, dismissed Milligan’s diagnosis, claiming that having multiple personalities was a normal aspect of being a human, and the defense was fraudulent. In 1994, multiple personality disorder was renamed in the DSM-IV psychiatric manual as Dissociative Identity Disorder, in order to reflect the role that fragmentation plays in protecting the patient from their trauma.
Who is Rya Goodwin?
Rya Goodwin, played by Amanda Seyfried, is referred to as a “professor” throughout The Crowded Room. She’s asked to interrogate Sullivan, but she’s not a police officer. So, it’s more likely that Goodwin is a psychologist or psychiatrist. It’s not completely clear who her character is based on, although there are several possibilities.
While Milligan was initially diagnosed as schizophrenic, Dr. Dorothy Turner of Southwest Community Mental Health Center concluded that he suffered from DID. Milligan was also seen by Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, who claimed Milligan cycled through four personalities during their short meeting.
Wilbur was a psychiatrist best known for treating Shirley Ardell Mason, who developed 16 alternative personalities due to childhood sexual abuse, and whose case inspired both the book (1973) and the film Sybil (1976). The case of Mason has since been debunked.
Did Billy Milligan murder Michael Pierce Madden?
In 1986, Milligan escaped the psychiatric hospital where he was housed and began going by the alias of Christopher Carr. During that time, Milligan lived in Bellingham, Washington, with a roommate named Michael Pierce Madden, who went missing in September of 1986.
Milligan was suspected of Madden’s murder, mainly after he sold Madden’s car. The missing man’s possessions were later found in Milligan’s apartment, and it was learned that he was cashing Madden’s disability checks. However, because there was no concrete evidence, and a body was never found, Milligan was never charged with the crime and Madden’s case still remains unsolved.
Where is Billy Milligan today?
After he received a verdict of “not guilty by reason of insanity” for the Ohio State crimes, Milligan was committed to Athens Mental Health Center in Ohio. There, he worked with Dr. David Caul, an innovator in the treatment of what at the time was known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Caul sought to integrate Milligan’s personalities, and along the way, discovered 14 more, bringing the total amount to 24 personalities.
Keyes’s book, The Minds of Billy Milligan included interview research with Milligan and details Caul’s treatment of the man. However, in spite of being hospitalized, Milligan was still carrying on criminal activity, according to news outlets at the time. He was declared a security risk and in 1980, he relocated to Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, which Milligan later described to Keyes as a “chamber of horrors.”
In 1988, doctors declared his personalities integrated, and so he was no longer considered dangerous. By 1991, he was released from both mental and legal supervision. Milligan relocated to California, but then disappeared from the radar until 1996, when he gave a statement to Astrea’s Web, a publication for “multiple personality resources & controversies.”
In it, he declared that he owned a company called Stormy Life Production, and he planned to make a short film. “My thing is educating people,” he said. He also claimed that he’d trained actors such as John Cusack, Christian Slater, and Leonardo DiCaprio to “enact MP as it really is and not as it is popularly seen.”
And while there doesn’t seem to be a public record of Milligan meeting with any of those actors, there’s at least a grain of truth in what he said. Over the past few decades, Milligan’s story has been a hot property in Hollywood. Leonardo DiCaprio referred to it as a “passion project” of his, with the Guardian reporting that “DiCaprio has been interested in taking the part since 1997.” James Cameron did try to adapt Keyes’s book into a project for the big screen starring John Cusack, with a resulting script called The Crowded Room. Other names attached include Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Colin Farrell, and Johnny Depp, with Danny DeVito, Gus Van Sant, Joel Schumacher, and David Fincher a few of the high-profile names bandied about to further develop and/or direct.
If Milligan did make a short film, it’s never surfaced, and Milligan was not involved in Apple TV+’s show. According to Kathy, Milligan’s sister, he declared bankruptcy in California, then returned to Ohio, where he died of cancer in 2014 at the age of 59.