Former attorney, county prosecutor and Michigan Supreme Court Justice, John Voelker (alias Robert Traver) was born in 1903 in Ishpheming, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He "somehow survived the awesome experience of having spawned a National Best Seller, "ANATOMY OF A MURDER." Voelker was the defense attorney in the trial upon which the book is based. He used the pen name of Robert Traver thinking it would seem inappropriate for a sitting judge to also be a crime novelist.