TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Former Associated Press reporter Elon Torrence, who covered the trial of two men hanged for murders that inspired the Truman Capote book “In Cold Blood,” has died. He was 98.
His daughter, Mary Torrence, confirmed that he died Wednesday at a Topeka retirement community. She says his wife of 70 years, 95-year-old Lois “Polly” Torrence, died Monday following a stroke.
Elon Torrence was an AP newsman at the Kansas Statehouse from 1946 to early 1982. He also worked at The Garden City Telegram. He served 16 years on the state’s Governmental Ethics Commission, starting in 1994.
He covered the trial of the two men hanged for killing the Clutter family in 1959 in the southwest Kansas town of Holcomb. He also covered a deadly 1966 tornado in Topeka.