Topeka ? Charles McAtee, who supervised the state’s last four executions 40 years ago, including the hangings of two men whose murders of a western Kansas family inspired the book “In Cold Blood,” has died.

A funeral was Tuesday in Topeka for McAtee, whose lengthy career included five unsuccessful campaigns for Congress and Kansas attorney general.

He died Friday at age 76 after a two-year battle with leukemia.

A Marine who served during the Korean War and a former FBI agent, McAtee was the state’s director of penal institutions for four years, starting in 1965, when Kansas’ last executions were carried out. Afterward, he started a private law practice in Topeka.

Early the morning of April 14, 1965, McAtee witnessed the hangings of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who had murdered the four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, outside Garden City, in 1959. Truman Capote chronicled the brutal slayings in his best-selling book “In Cold Blood.”

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, he recalled that Hickock and Smith were calm, pensive and reflective in the hours before their executions. He said Hickock recalled his childhood, while Smith contemplated life and death.

“I grew to know them as human beings, but I never lost sight of the horrendous crimes they committed and the four beautiful people whose lives they ended,” he said.

McAtee also recalled his memories of Hickock and Smith during an interview with “River City Weekly” host Greg Hurd; an encore presentation of the show ran last week on Sunflower Broadband in conjunction with a four-part series on the 40th anniversary of the book “In Cold Blood” that ran in the Journal-World.

Charles McAtee was the state's director of penal institutions for four years, starting in 1965, when Kansas' last executions were carried out. McAtee died Friday at age 76.

Two months after Hickock and Smith were hanged, McAtee again supervised two executions in one day, those for serial killers James York and George Latham. They were the last to take “a ride on the Big Swing,” as Capote said inmates called the state’s gallows.

A Republican, McAtee ran for Congress in 1964 and 1972. He won the 1972 Republican primary — defeating Joan Finney, who later switched parties and was elected state treasurer and governor — but lost to incumbent Democrat Bill Roy.

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He lost GOP primaries for attorney general in 1968 and 2002.