About This Episode
On the early morning of July 31, 1952, US Army Lieutenant Coleman Peterson entered the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, Michigan, approached bar owner Maurice Chenoweth from behind the counter, and emptied his gun into him. Within hours, Peterson had driven home and surrendered to a police deputy. What followed was a landmark trial that would later inspire one of the most acclaimed legal thrillers ever written.
The case began the previous evening when Charlotte Ann Peterson, wife of the 38-year-old lieutenant, alleged that Chenoweth—a former police officer with a reputation as a womanizer—had beaten and sexually assaulted her around 11:45 p.m. on July 30 after offering her a ride home from the bar. According to her account, Chenoweth attacked her in his car, and she managed to escape. When she told her husband what had happened, Peterson's response was swift and violent.
Charlotte Ann's allegations became central to the defense strategy. Rather than deny the shooting—the facts were undisputed—Peterson's attorney, John D. Voelker, built his case around a controversial legal doctrine: temporary insanity, or what the law calls an "irresistible impulse." The argument was that upon learning of his wife's assault, Peterson was seized by an uncontrollable rage that rendered him temporarily insane, unable to restrain his actions.