In 1952, a saloon killing in a small Upper Peninsula town became one of the most important—and controversial—criminal trials in Michigan history.
The lawyer who defended the accused was John D. Voelker: former county prosecutor, defense attorney, future Michigan Supreme Court justice, and a gifted writer who would later publish the landmark legal novel Anatomy of a Murder under the pen name Robert Traver.
In this episode of Flint Justice, Arthur Busch examines:
• the real Big Bay homicide that inspired the book,
• how Voelker transformed a trial transcript into one of the most realistic courtroom novels ever written, and
• what Anatomy of a Murder still teaches us about prosecutors, defense lawyers, juries, and reasonable doubt.
This is not a story about tidy verdicts or cinematic courtroom speeches.
It’s about ambiguity, discretion, community judgment, and the uncomfortable truth that justice is often shaped by what can be proven—not what actually happened.
For lawyers, judges, and communities like Flint and Genesee County, Anatomy of a Murder remains a mirror held up to the justice system itself.
Photography by Jim Hansen, LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress
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