In the early morning of July 31, 1952, a murder occurred in a dingy bar in a small resort town in the uppermost part of northern Michigan. The trial that followed, in which young army lieutenant Coleman Peterson was tried for murdering the bar owner, inspired a number-one bestselling novel and an Academy Award-nominated film. Showcasing the far-reaching power of a single crime, The Anatomy of a Murder Trilogy: A Classic Trial, Book, and Film follows the murder from the barroom to the court room to the theatrical release of Anatomy of a Murder in 1959.