Peggy Flanagan’s Grandfather Twice Escaped From Psychiatric Detention: Report

A dark chapter in Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan’s family history has found its way into the race, but it’s unclear whether voters will blame her for the alleged sins of her long-dead grandfather.

Earlier this week, Alpha News revealed the troubled mental health history of Flanagan’s grandfather, John Jacob Hartmann, supported by old newspaper accounts and court records. He spent decades in psychiatric confinement, escaped twice and was suspected of several murders, but was never charged.

The report comes just weeks before the midterm elections, in which Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, will face former television sports reporter Michelle Tafoya in a race to fill the seat of retiring Democrat Tina Smith.

Neither Flanagan nor Tafoya have publicly commented on the matter since decades-old allegations resurfaced. But this bizarre development has generated a buzz on social media.

Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet highlighted the “violent mental illness in Minnesota Democrat Peggy Flanagan’s family” in an X-rated post, followed by a photo of Flanagan wearing a shirt that says “Protect Trans Kids.” and Dustin Grage, a columnist at City Hall, wrote that the report “adds up.”

Flanagan has frequently spoken about her upbringing, including being raised by a single mother who relied on SNAP benefits and housing assistance, and the influence of her Native father, a tribal land rights activist who helped inspire her own advocacy for Native American communities.

But a lesser-known part of his family history involves Hartmann, who made headlines in Minneapolis newspapers throughout the 1970s and early 1980s for his stay in mental hospitals, his escapes and allegations linking him to at least four murders, which were unearthed by Minnesota-based Alpha News.

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Flanagan was three years old when Hartmann died on February 6, 1983. A Minnesota Star Tribune obituary listed Flanagan’s mother, Patricia Hartmann, and three sisters – Kathleen, Mary and Margaret – as his surviving daughters. An obituary for Patricia, who died in 2022, listed her maiden name as Hartmann and identified her father as John.

In an interview with Minnesota Women’s Press, Flanagan said her mother and grandmother were single mothers. She described her grandmother as having raised four daughters “at a time when that didn’t happen often.” Flanagan’s mother eventually married Thomas Flanagan, who is identified as Peggy Flanagan’s stepfather in her obituary.

In a Feb. 9, 1983, article announcing Hartmann’s death, the newspaper now known as the Minnesota Star Tribune said he was incarcerated on Nov. 1, 1951, after his wife filed a petition claiming he was “mentally ill and dangerous.” His commitment came after the body of a man named Theodore Foth was found burning in his bedroom, although Hartmann was never charged in Foth’s death. The newspaper also named Hartmann as a suspect in the murder of another Minnesota Security Hospital patient in 1964, but he was never charged.

A February 9, 1983 Minnesota Star Tribune article announcing the death of John Hartmann, Peggy Flanagan’s maternal grandfather. (Journals.com)

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Hartmann was transferred to Anoka State Hospital in 1970, but fled to New Mexico, where the newspaper reported that he was suspected in the deaths of a man and a woman. However, a 1973 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling does not mention the alleged murder allegations against Hartmann. Instead, the ruling said New Mexico authorities arrested Hartmann based on a warrant issued by Minnesota Probate Judge Melvin Peterson in September 1970. Authorities found that he lived in the state “without incident and without hiding his identity after his escape to Minnesota.” A special prosecutor later released Hartmann, finding that he was “of sound mind and safe to be at large.”

Hartmann was apprehended in Colorado on a misdemeanor charge the following year and brought back to Minnesota.

In April 1979, Hartmann failed to return from a visit to the Minnesota Security Hospital and fled to Missouri, where he allegedly threatened U.S. District Judge Miles Welton Lord in a telephone call. Lord presided over Hartmann’s earlier federal challenge to his involuntary return from Colorado to Minnesota and initially dismissed claims against several Minnesota officials. Hartmann was charged by federal authorities for the alleged threat, according to a 1979 Star Tribune article.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Flanagan’s campaign for comment.