Democrat Senate Candidate’s Grandfather Was Suspected Serial Killer

Minnesota Lt. Gov. and Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan’s maternal grandfather was suspected in four killings, according to a report based on historical newspaper accounts and family records.  

John Jacob Hartmann was suspected of murdering four people but was never charged in connection with any of the killings, Alpha News reported. Hartmann spent more than 30 years in Minnesota’s state mental hospitals. 

His first suspected victim, Minneapolis resident Theodore Foth, was found dead on a burning bed in Hartmann’s room in 1951.

Thirteen years later, another patient was killed at the state security hospital, drawing renewed suspicion toward Hartmann. Authorities did not charge him in that death because of insufficient evidence. Hartmann was transferred to Anoka State Hospital in Minnesota in 1970. He later escaped and was arrested in New Mexico on suspicion of killing a man and a woman.

Four years before his death, Hartmann allegedly threatened U.S. District Judge Miles Lord during a telephone call while on the run after escaping Minnesota Security Hospital, according to the report. Lord, who publicly called Hartmann a “mass murderer,” subsequently obtained armed protection. Hartmann was federally charged.

When Hartmann died on February 6, 1983, his death notice listed Flanagan among his surviving relatives, along with two other grandchildren and four daughters. Flanagan was 3 years old when Hartmann died.

Flanagan has frequently discussed her Native American heritage and her upbringing with a single mother throughout her political career.

“Growing up, I felt like the bottom could fall out at any moment,” her campaign website quotes her as saying. The site describes how her family relied on public assistance, including food assistance and Medicaid.

Flanagan has also spoken about her role as an example for young Native Americans. “To all young Indigenous people, young people of color, and young people in rural communities who feel forgotten… you deserve to be seen, heard, and valued,” she said when she was first sworn in as lieutenant governor in 2019. “There is a place for you in this work. Your own story and experiences are valid. You deserve to have a voice within your own community and your own future.”

Flanagan’s campaign did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment. 

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