Tuesday, January 24, 2017

What happened to Billy Calhoun from the Children Of Darkness documentary?

To rehash, patient William Calhoun (Billy Calhoun) was featured in the 1983 documentary called Children of Darkness. Billy Calhoun was the patient who was hurting himself so badly from his self-injurious behaviors and being escorted by orderlies around the hospital at the very beginning of the Children Of Darkness documentary.

The Children of Darkness documentary was broadcasted nationally on television in the United States on PBS that same year. The Children of Darkness documentary explored the lack of mental health care in America for juvenile psychiatry. Many seriously emotionally disturbed youth were shown. Richard Kotuk filmed and directed Children of Darkness documentary. Billy Calhoun was another star of the documentary as he was featured all over the place in regard to this documentary. Richard Kotuk focused a portion of his time filming Billy Calhoun due to his strange behavior inside said documentary. Billy Calhoun has a profound case of autism.

William Calhoun (Billy Calhoun) was born in 1963. At the age of 4, he was labeled severely mentally retarded. He was then later diagnosed with autism. As a child, Billy was suffering from severe autism. His severe autism caused him to act out in an aggressive manner as he was dangerous around other and himself. His family could no longer handle him or his dangerous destructive behavior. At the age of 7, he was placed in a state institution called Sagamore Hospital via Sagamore Children’s Hospital. He was more or less abandoned his mother, Mary Calhoun, and family despite that his mother saw him every week until she died. He was in a state of constant panic being unaware of what was going on around him.

During his stay as a patient at the Sagamore Hospital, his self-injurious behaviors worsened as acted more aggressive towards staff. Every 2 to 3 hours, Billy would be “walked” by orderlies around the hospital so his muscles would not atrophy or deteriorate. Billy had attacked hospital staff and orderlies in the past as described in the documentary. Most of the time he was strapped to his bed most of the time during the filming session for this documentary. While at Sagamore Children’s Hospital, Billy underwent intense therapy while being in restraints for 2 1/2 years long. 


Billy Calhoun is still alive and is now at the age of 53. Things have changed. Billy has undergone several behavioral interventions and therapy sessions. Some of his phases eventually passed. The lobotomy and shock therapy never happened. As a result, Billy Calhoun now receives 24 hour care around the clock. He is well cared for. Things have changed, but we can never undo the abuse, trauma, pain, suffering, and torture he went through as a child. What happened there is beyond words.

The self-injurious behaviors and self-destructive behavior is still evident and present. Just to a level that lets him function to the point where he can function to be as aggressive or dangerous as he once was earlier in his lifetime. Billy is now heavily medicated by fair amounts of drugs.

[William Calhoun (Billy Calhoun)’s mother was Mary Calhoun. She has since passed away.]

18 comments:

  1. Hello, Who wrote this update. Please contact me as I'm working on a documentary film on this subject matter. Thanks and kind regards, Robert Ramirez robram818@gmail.com 310-922-4400 cell

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  2. I'm happy to hear that he is alive. Any more detail as to his treatment and medications? Has the treatment caused his symptoms to subside? I feel so sorry for him and his family. I'm sure his parents have passed by now. His father was a real kind man. There was another kid that had to wear a football helmet when he took his walks, he was in even worse shape that Billy. Please email me if you have anymore info. Thanks. Patrickgcrawford@gmail.com

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    1. I think the father that you're referring to was the father to another one of the boys there, not Billy's father. Billy's father passed before the filming of this piece.

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  3. This is fake news. The author is making this up.

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    1. What is fake about this news? Please enlighten us.

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    2. do u know what ever happened to Denise the suicidal girl? at the end they said she ran away and dont know her whereabouts, do u have any information on that? thank you.

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  4. Thanks for the update. That was a disturbing film. I am glad Billy has better people looking out for him.

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    1. You are welcome, DOC. We try to stay updated as much as possible.

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  5. That 1/24/17 update isn't entirely accurate. It's true that Billy is in a different environment and receives more individualized care, but the characterization of his 'vicious' childhood, and that he was abandoned by his mother - who visited him every week for 35 years - is over the top.

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    1. Thank you for pointing that out to us. Michael Mixerr will rewrite this news article in the near future. Sorry for the late reply.

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    2. No huge harm done, but I would be curious as to the source of his information, although I'm sure that things are guessed about and rarely challenged.

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    3. Guessed about in general on topics with long, undocumented histories, that is, not to imply that he didn't care about the facts.

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    4. Kevin, we do care about the facts. A newly revised news article will be posted sometime next month. First we have to get our urban exploration news articles, politics news articles, and album reviews done first before we move back to the update about Billy Calhoun.

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  6. Sorry to be unknown/anonymous with the above comment - I'm new at this and don't know how to set it all up, but I'm a family member...

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  7. Hello I remember watching this documentary many many years ago I personally am a disturbed child even though I'm now 56 yrs old. I was once in a mental institution for 2 years due to manic episodes and schizophrenia. I'm an independent individual and I am in care of a psychiatrist and taking meds. I totally relate with all this teenagers of back in 1983. I was one of them but back then we didn't know what we know now of mental illness. Thankuu so much

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  8. I'm still in care of a psychiatrist and taking meds daily but once in a awhile I still listen to boices whispering or demanding me to hurt other or hurt myself. For instance the voices demand me to throw myself to the train when passing by. To kill myself. Its so hard living with mental issues. Humanity will never understand

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