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AG Report: GOP Lawyer Talcott Killed by Wife in Self Defense

Alex Talcott’s frightening spiral of depression, abuse, and suicide threats ended in an attack on his wife that forced her to kill him in self-defense, according to a report released Thursday by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

“I’m going to kill you and kill the kids, and then I am going to kill myself because you know I can’t take care of them,” Alex Talcott reportedly told Kristin Talcott during the Aug. 26, 2023 attack.

Kristin Talcott will not be charged for fatally stabbing her husband in the neck, as the Attorney General’s Office ruled it a legally justifiable act taken in self-defense.

A long-time GOP activist, news of Alex Talcott’s death sent shockwaves through his circle of friends and the state Republican Party, though the details of his tortured final months were not known. At 41, Alex Talcott was deeply in debt, unemployed, and resigned to losing the house where he lived with his wife and their three young children.

Friends who had interacted with Alex Talcott in his final months told investigators he seemed depressed and stressed, but they did not know the full details of his struggle. 

Several GOP sources told NHJournal he had reached out to them looking for help finding a job, a sign of financial trouble that caught them by surprise.

Kristin Talcott told investigators she did not know about the family’s precarious financial position until early in 2023. That was when she learned her husband’s real estate ventures collapsed, the family did not have health insurance due to missed payments, they were several months behind on the mortgage, their credit cards were maxed out, and Alex Talcott had not filed tax returns in years.

Kristin Talcott, 41, was a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled their children and left the family’s money management to her husband. The couple met while attending Dartmouth College. Alex Talcott was a licensed attorney, though he had stopped practicing law to venture into real estate entrepreneurship. 

That was when Alex Talcott’s mental health started failing, according to the report. He fell into depression and told Kristin Talcott he wanted to kill himself. He also started to be verbally abusive, she told investigators.

There were also instances of Alex Talcott’s behavior stooping to “physical aggression,” according to the report. Kristin Talcott told investigators there were isolated incidents, and she did not report them out of embarrassment. 

Last summer, Alex Talcott borrowed more and more money from friends and family as he looked for a job with a high salary. Kristin Talcott, a licensed social worker, renewed her license and started a practice in order to bring in money for the family.

Kristin Talcott begged her husband to seek therapy and take medication for his eroding mental health. But he became more erratic and volatile, she told investigators. It was at that point she started to make plans to leave with the children.

Kristin took the children for an overnight trip to Massachusetts to visit her parents on Aug. 24, returning on the evening of Aug. 25. She went to bed around 8:30 p.m. in the area of the house where the children slept. The couple had slept separately for some time, and Kristin Talcott had begun sleeping with a can of pepper spray due to fear of her husband.

At 1:30 in the morning on Aug. 26, Alex Talcott woke his wife to talk. She told investigators he seemed calm when they went to the master bedroom and sat on the side of the bed. Alex Talcott revealed he found notes she had written about her plans to separate. Kristin Talcott kept the plans secret, fearing Alex Talcott’s reaction.

“You really think I would let you and the kids leave?” He reportedly said.

He pulled out a kitchen knife and began cutting Kristin Talcott, she told investigators. She begged him to stop, but he continued to cut her, telling her he would never let her leave. Kristin Talcott took the pepper spray from her pocket and sprayed him. He fell back on the bed, and she grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the neck, she told investigators.

Kristin Talcott dropped the knife after she stabbed her husband. Alex Talcott’s demeanor seemed to change after his wife fought back. He started to tell her he loved her and how he was “going to get this fixed.”

Kristin Talcott, still terrified, tried to get Alex Talcott to lie down. He would not let her call the police but instead went on about how he would “figure this out.”

“You’re crazy,” Kristin Talcott responded.

That set Alex Talcott off again. He got the knife and pushed her against the wall. He thrust the knife at her stomach, jabbing it toward her. As he did so, he told his wife of 17 years he was going to kill her, the children, and then himself.

Kristin Talcott struggled and got control of the knife. Again, she stabbed him in the neck. He stopped attacking her and stumbled into the master bathroom. Kristen Talcott told investigators she did not have her cell phone, and she could not unlock her husband’s cell phone to call 911. She did not want to leave, as she was still frightened he would attack her again.

“I wasn’t going to leave him while I still thought he could still come after me,” she told investigators.

From the bathroom, Alex Talcott asked his wife for a piece of fruit. He also asked her to call the police. Kristin Talcott lied and told him the police were already on their way. He then fell to the floor of the bathroom. Kristin Talcott told investigators she felt it was now safe to leave and ran to get her cell phone from the room she shared with her children.

Kristin Talcott called the police and then got an apple to bring to her husband. She told investigators she knew fetching the apple was “weird” but explained, “This is the person I loved for 20 years.”

Alex Talcott was alive when his wife called 911 but died soon after, according to the report. Police found Kristen Talcott bleeding from her many wounds. She had cuts on her hands, arms, abdomen, shoulder, neck and chest. 

The couple’s children were not physically harmed during the violence, according to the report.

The $600 Man Trying To Bring Down Trump

Republican presidential candidate John Castro has no campaign office in New Hampshire, no campaign staff, has met with no voters in the first-in-the-nation primary, and his campaign fund boasts a whopping $670.

The tax-lawyer-turned-social-media-political-activist claims former President Donald Trump is costing him votes and donations, and he is suing the New Hampshire Secretary of State to keep Trump off the ballot. 

Castro brought his low-budget road show to the United States District Court in Concord on Friday to argue before Judge Joseph Lapante that he has the legal standing to engage in the lawsuit by virtue of being a presidential candidate.

But Trump’s lawyers said Castro’s presidential campaign was a stunt meant to create cover for the lawsuit. After Friday’s evidentiary hearing, Trump attorney Jonathan Shaw told NHJournal that Castro’s presidential campaign isn’t real, and his lawsuit ought to be dismissed.

“I think the evidence is clear he has no campaign. What he has is a desire to manufacture standing. He has a theory that by pretending to be a political contender, he has standing. And he’s wrong,” said Jonathan Shaw, one of the Trump’s lawyers.

The Trump campaign, the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office, and the New Hampshire Republican Party all oppose Castro’s lawsuit. 

Castro is behind 27 federal lawsuits aimed at Trump, arguing the former president should be barred from office under the 14th Amendment. Castro argued Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were akin to partaking in an insurrection, and he ought to be barred from holding office under the Constitution.

Castro claimed that because he is a presidential candidate who paid the $1,000 fee to the New Hampshire secretary of state to file his nomination, he stands to lose if Trump is allowed to run. However, state GOP attorney Bryant Gould said during the hearing that Castro presented no evidence of any Trump voter or donor who would switch to back him if Trump were out of the race.

“That’s the end of the game for you,” Gould said.

Under questioning on the stand, Castro admitted to LaPlante that his presidential campaign was not about winning but all about stopping Trump.

“One might look at your campaign and say your main goal is to establish the impermissibility of the Trump campaign, isn’t that right,” LaPlante asked,

“Yes,” Castro agreed.

Castro’s active social media feed includes tweets going back to 2021, in which he vows to run for president so that he will have legal standing. Standing is the legal principle that people must have good reason to bring a lawsuit, essentially that they have to have a dog in any particular fight. A person with standing can prove they are being harmed in some way.

Brendan O’Donnell, the lawyer for the secretary of state, told LaPlante during the hearing that Castro has no proof he is harmed by Trump’s campaign. There is no proof to his theory that any Trump voters or donors will switch to backing Castro.

“All we have is speculation,” O’Donnell said.

Rick Lehmann, another lawyer representing Trump, told LaPlante that Castro’s Potemkin campaign is an effort to manufacture standing. Castro, the tax lawyer, isn’t harmed by Trump’s candidacy, but Castro, the GOP candidate, is harmed because Trump takes away votes and donations under the theory. 

“He thinks he’s figured out how to pick the lock,” Lehmann told LaPlante.

At the end of Friday’s hearing, LaPlante said he will have a ruling this week to decide if Castro’s lawsuit can proceed. If LaPlante agrees with Castro, that could mean an injunction against the secretary of state prohibiting Trump’s candidacy. Trump is due in New Hampshire on Monday. He has not yet filed his nomination for the primary.

Outside the courthouse, Castro said he was engaging in what he called “lawfare” to keep Trump off the ballot in key swing states and push his candidacy forward. In the coming days, Castro plans to meet with voters, hire staff, and even campaign for the nomination.

The right time to launch will be once Trump gets kicked off the ballot in a state where he is suing, Castro said. That would cause global headlines for Castro’s run.

“Once that happens, it will really open up the campaign,” Castor said.

Castro said he was emulating Trump, leveraging the lawsuits to get free media attention for himself and his campaign.

“I didn’t get to where I’m at in life by burning money. I’m very calculating about how I do things,” Castro said.

Castro claims he is self-funding the camping with revenue generated by his tax law firm, and he has been tied up meeting tax deadlines for his business and has been unable to stump. 

The 27 federal lawsuits are Castro’s main campaign expense, he said during the hearing. He said the campaign had paid all of the federal filing fees to bring the complaints. Each lawsuit has cost his campaign $402 to file, meaning Castro’s presidential campaign has forked up at least $10,000 just to bring all 27 lawsuits. 

It also came out during the hearing that Castro originally planned to self-fund his campaign with a $20 million loan. Castro believed he would be getting a $180 million investment for his AI tax software and planned to use stock in the next company to fund his presidential ambitions. That deal did not work out, and he has been running on a tighter budget since.