"anatomy of a murder" is based on a real murder (and subsequent trial) that occurred in big bay in the early morning of july 31, 1952. coleman a. peterson, a lieutenant in the army, was charged with murdering maurice chenoweth. the alleged motive was revenge for the rape of peterson's wife by chenoweth. voelker successfully defended peterson, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity. other books by voelker were based on other legal cases in the upper peninsula or his love of fly fishing for brook trout. he authored over 100 opinions during his short tenure on the michigan supreme court, the most famous of which was in a case called "people v. hildabridle" involving a naturist community near battle creek.