Minnesota Senate race takes bizarre turn after dark family history uncovered

Peggy Flanagan’s Minnesota Senate campaign has been drawn into renewed scrutiny of her grandfather John Jacob Hartmann, whose history of psychiatric confinement, escapes and suspected killings has resurfaced in a report based on old newspaper accounts and court records. Hartmann was never charged in the deaths mentioned, and the article gives no evidence that Flanagan was involved; she was three when he died. Neither Flanagan nor her Republican opponent, Michelle Tafoya, has commented publicly, while the allegations have prompted discussion on social media.

Hartmann was committed in 1951 after his wife said he was mentally ill and dangerous. Newspaper reports later named him as a suspect in several deaths, including a 1964 killing at a hospital and deaths in New Mexico after he escaped there; a 1973 appeals court ruling said he was living openly and without incident, and a special prosecutor found him sane and safe to be at large. Flanagan, now Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, is running to replace retiring Democratic senator Tina Smith in the midterm election.