Democrat Senate Candidate’s Grandfather Was Suspected Serial Killer

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is the granddaughter of a man who was suspected in four deaths but never prosecuted for any of them, Alpha News reports, drawing on old newspaper coverage and family records. Her mother's father, John Jacob Hartmann, spent over three decades in Minnesota's state psychiatric institutions, according to Daily Wire.

The first death tied to him was that of Minneapolis resident Theodore Foth, who was discovered in 1951 on a bed that was on fire in Hartmann's room. A patient at the state security hospital was killed thirteen years afterward, which revived suspicion, though authorities lacked enough evidence to bring a charge. After a 1970 move to Anoka State Hospital, Hartmann fled and was later taken into custody in New Mexico, where he was suspected in the deaths of two people. Alpha News also says he threatened U.S. District Judge Miles Lord by phone while at large, and the judge, who had publicly labeled him a "mass murderer," received armed protection. Hartmann faced a federal charge. He died on February 6, 1983, when Flanagan was 3. Flanagan often speaks about her Native American roots and her single-mother upbringing.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Daily Wire’s reporting. Read the full story at Daily Wire →