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[Letterhead Grand Hotel, Gilmour & Son]
Cincinnati, Mar: 2d 1882
Dear Mr Lockwood -
Don't laugh at what I am about to tell you - nor think I am at all nervous, but forearmed is - no, I've got it backwards, but you know the proverb; as Hamlet says - "'tis something musty." At the outbreak of this little domestic "unpleasantness" I remarked "Perhaps McV., to vent his spite, will get Mark Grey (my would be assassin) released". Of course I said this in joke - never dreaming that the fellow,who in McV.'s theatre, in 1879, shot thrice at & barely missed me, would ever be released from the lunatic asylum where I had him placed, & whose Superintendant (Kilburn by name) assured McV. that so long as he had control Grey should not be let go, nor did he think that any sane man would release so dangerous a maniac. Imagine my surprise today when I learned that Grey had been set at liberty three months ago! People who know him have seen him. While acting in St Louis, the home of Grey, two weeks ago, I heard, during one of my scenes, what I suspected to be a pistol shot.
I looked up at the gallery & paused awhile, but it was not repeated; during that pause however the grimly-comic notion took possession of me that my friend Grey was in front. - I write to ask if you will not get your friend Quick to write Dr Kilburn, of Elgin Asylum, and ascertain particulars, & if it is lawful to let a murderous lunatic loose, & also what course I shall pursue to guard against him. I do not seriously think that McV. has had anything to do with his release, but they who will murder reputations are capable of any dastardly act, & it may be just possible that McV., who knows Kilburn, has (on my behalf) pleaded for Grey's release. He & his wife are soulless & could stoop to anything to wreak their vengeance for being frustrated in their scheme to rob me. This may be idle; but where devils & lunatics are concerned it is just as well to keep one's "weather eye" open.
Truly Yours
Edwin Booth