The Menninger Foundation is a clinic, sanatorium, and psychiatric school founded in 1919. Known as a beacon of health and reform, there have also been long-running rumors of controversy, abuse, and manipulation. Legendary Hollywood starlets like Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland sought treatment there, and still today, many celebrities secretly spend time there.John Henry Timmis IV, the son of a wealthy family from Chicago’s northern suburbs, was diagnosed a psychopath after a string of rebellious misdemeanors as a teenager—possession of marijuana, prostitution, and theft. Timmis frequented the Menninger Clinic between the ages of 15 and 17. He repeatedly ran away and got recaptured, was held in solitary for extended periods, and forced to endure excruciatingly dull group therapy sessions. He recounts these experiences with adolescent braggadocio, blurring intensely personal confessions and exaggerated fantasies, in hopes of mythologizing himself and claiming a spot in the canon of rebellious youth.Later in life, as JTIV, Timmis recorded sincere autobiographical songs in a style he deemed “Destructo-Rock,” and was acknowledged in The Guinness Book of World Records for creating the longest film ever made, The Cure for Insomnia. He passed away in 2002, leaving us his songs, the film, and this document to piece together his wild and bizarre story.
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John Henry Timmis IV was born in 1961 in Warren, Pennsylvania, and spent part of his childhood in Athens, Ohio, where his father taught at Ohio University. Timmis described his home life there as an abusive one, with his parents separating and his mother bringing him to Chicago. He ran away several times before his mother committed him to the Menninger Clinic in 1976—purportedly because she thought he might be schizophrenic.After leaving the clinic, Timmis pursued his greatest passion: music. He liked to see himself as a legendary figure, but struggled mightily to build up the courage to play even in front of friends, so he often videotaped himself singing along to his own songs, or hired musicians to play with him while he filmed homemade concert movies. Timmis battled substance abuse, anorexia, and bulimia before eventually dying from complications of alcoholism in 2002 at the age of 40.
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