Battle Creek. Local police on their own initiative investigated the community even though local residents had not lodged any complaints. One officer swore out a warrant used to arrest the community members. Chief Justice John R. Dethmers wrote the original majority opinion to uphold the convictions of the naturists. In the dissent, Voelker proclaimed "the entire search-and-arrest process 'indecent—indeed the one big indecency we find in this whole case .... It seems that we are now prepared to burn down the house of constitutional safeguards in order to roast a few nudists. I will have none of it". In an example of the humor used in his opinions, in noting the proclivities of the naturist, "if eccentricity were a crime, then all of us were felons". This dissenting opinion was so convincing that it swayed Justice George Clifton Edwards, Jr. to change sides, converting the dissent to a majority. On Voelker's request, his opinion was published unaltered, starting with the words "I dissent", an anomaly in published majority opinions of the court. In 1962, political scientist S. Sidney Ulmer noted that Voelker was the second-most influential member of the court. In 1959, after the success of his novel Anatomy of a Murder, Voelker retired from the court in order to write full-time and to fish at his beloved Frenchman's Pond. At the time, his court salary was $18,500/year (equivalent to $ in ) while he was earning royalties from Anatomy of a Murder of almost $100,000 (equivalent to $ in ). He delayed his resignation until after the new year in 1960 so that Governor Williams would be free to appoint his successor, Theodore Souris. After leaving the court, Voelker never practiced law again. Literary career Voelker wrote his first story, "Lost All Night in a Swamp with a Bear" at age 12. He started his professional writing career in 1933 when he returned to Ishpeming from Chicago. His first published piece was a short story called "Iron" that appeared in the February 1934 issue of American Scene. He assumed a pen name, "Robert Traver," the first name from a brother who died serving with the U.S. Navy in World War I, and the last name from his mother's maiden name. He used a pseudonym because, in his words, he "didn't think the taxpayers would fancy [him] doing [his] scribbling on their time". His first novel, Troubleshooter was published in