The Old Bailey Goes Online.

Proceedings of nearly 200,000 trials at the Old Bailey, the main criminal court in London, are now available online; they span the years 1674 to 1913.

Have a look at the two cases involving suffrage leaders Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence for their actions to "unlawfully and maliciously damage certain property, to wit, glass windows, the property of the liege subjects of our Lord the King" and, in Mrs. Pankhurst's case, "feloniously procuring and inciting a person or persons unknown to commit felony" (May 1912, April 1913).

About the photo: Emmeline Pankhurst. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.

Happy birthday to Snoopy inspiration and Dickens pal Edward Bulwer Lytton (1st Baron Lytton), who was born today in 1803. Stay tuned for the Clues issue that features an article on Bulwer Lytton's contribution to crime fiction.

And birthday cake also goes to Jason Bourne creator and former actor-producer Robert Ludlum, born today in New York City in 1927.

Happy birthday, Mary Willis Walker.

An Edgar winner (for The Red Scream, 1994), Anthony winner (for Under the Beetle's Cellar, 1995), and Agatha winner (for Zero at the Bone, 1991), Texas resident Mary Willis Walker was born today in Wisconsin in 1942. An excerpt from The Red Scream appears in Lone Star Sleuths (2007), ed. Bill Cunningham, Steven L. Davis, and Rollo K. Newsom, and published by University of Texas Press (the collection also features Susan Rogers Cooper, Bill Crider, Rick Riordan, and other writers).

DC's Museum of Crime & Punishment.

The new (and steeply priced) Museum of Crime & Punishment opens today in DC. Here's a column about the museum by the Washington Post's Marc Fisher.

The LAPL Dodges a Bullet.

It seems that the people of Los Angeles have spoken out against library branch closures, budget cuts, staff layoffs, and additional fees, and the book-buying budget has actually been increased by $2 million. Further details here.

Among the LAPL's resources, its marvelous photo collections include, pictured at left, a shot by Cliff Solomon of the exterior of Philip Marlowe's office building, which appeared in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973).

This Place Matters.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has declared May to be Preservation Month, and in response, people have been sending in photos and stories about significant places around the United States, including the childhood home of women's suffrage and peace icon Carrie Chapman Catt and Denver's haunted Brown Palace Hotel (pictured at left).

"A Study in Scarlet" Nets More Than $30,000.

After a UK-US bidding war, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" from Beeton's Christmas Annual (1887) went for 15,500 pounds at an auction of Oxfam books today. More here from the BBC and here from Bonhams.

Happy birthday, Margery Allingham.

Margery Allingham, creator of mysterious detective Albert Campion and his sidekick Magersfontein Lugg, was born today in Ealing in 1904. Luckily for readers everywhere, Felony and Mayhem Press is reprinting all of the Campion books, including, eventually, The Tiger in the Smoke (1952), selected by the Times of London as one of the Best 100 Mysteries of the twentieth century. I'm partial to her nonfiction work The Oaken Heart (1941), which is a penetrating look at life in an English village with World War II refugees. Clues ran, in the summer 2007 issue, a discussion of Allingham's short stories by B. A. Pike, chairman of the Margery Allingham Society. Here is an interesting discussion of Campion and Allingham from the Times Literary Supplement.

About the photo: Margery Allingham by Philip Youngman Carter. Image courtesy of B. A. Pike, Margery Allingham Society.