Report ties Peggy Flanagan's late grandfather to suspected, uncharged killings

Right · 2Minnesota-based outlet Alpha News reported that the maternal grandfather of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, John Jacob Hartmann, spent decades in Minnesota psychiatric custody and was suspected in several killings, though he was never charged. 1 2 Right · 2According to the archives, Hartmann was committed on Nov. 1, 1951, after his wife petitioned that he was "mentally ill and dangerous"; the commitment followed the death of a man named Theodore Foth, whose body was found burning on a bed in Hartmann's room. Hartmann was not charged in that death. 2 1 Right · 2He was also named as a suspect in a 1964 murder of a fellow patient at the Minnesota Security Hospital, but was not charged; Just the News says this was because of insufficient evidence. 2 1

Right · 2Hartmann was transferred to Anoka State Hospital in 1970 and escaped to New Mexico, where, per a newspaper report, he was suspected in the deaths of a man and a woman. 1 2 Right · 1Fox News adds that a 1973 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling does not mention those allegations; it said New Mexico authorities found him living there "without incident and without hiding his identity," and a special prosecutor released him, finding he was "sane and safe to be at large." He was later picked up in Colorado on a misdemeanor charge and returned to Minnesota. 2 Right · 2In April 1979 Hartmann failed to return from a visit pass and fled to Missouri, where he allegedly threatened U.S. District Judge Miles Lord by phone; Fox, citing a 1979 Star Tribune article, says federal authorities charged him over the threat. Just the News says Lord publicly called him a "mass murderer." 2 1

Right · 2Alpha News linked Hartmann to Flanagan through his death notice in the Star Tribune, which listed four surviving daughters and three grandchildren including Peggy Hartmann; Flanagan, who was a child when he died on Feb. 6, 1983, later took her stepfather's surname and in 2013 called herself "Little Peggy Hartmann" in a social media post. 1 2 Right · 1Neither Flanagan nor her Republican opponent, former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya, had commented publicly at the time of reporting; Fox News Digital said it had asked Flanagan's campaign for comment. Social media figures including Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet amplified the report. 2 Right · 2Just the News notes that Flanagan has made her Native American heritage a key part of her campaign but omitted this part of her family story, while Fox says it is unclear whether voters will hold the "alleged sins" of her long-dead grandfather against her. The race is to fill the seat of retiring Democrat Tina Smith. 2 1