Could Republican candidate Ted Cruz be the infamous Zodiac Killer?
Probably not. Why? Well, because he was an infant during the time most of the murders were committed, and he actually wasn't even born at the time of the first murders.
Despite the obvious fact that unless he is a time traveler, he couldn't have committed the Zodiac's murders. A recent trend on the Internet—fueled by an uncanny resemblance to a police composite sketch—claims that Cruz is, indeed, the infamous Zodiac.
Just for some background, the Zodiac Killer was the never-identified and never-caught culprit of a series of serial murders in Northern California in the late 1960s and '70s. He is confirmed to have killed five innocent people, but it is possible that the real number is anywhere from 20 to 37.
The killer garnered additional attention after taunting the police by sending letters to California newspapers, including cryptograms, only one of which has definitely been solved.
The part that includes Senator Cruz started in 2013, when a Twitter feed called @RedPillAmerica posted this Tweet about a future speech of Cruz's being titled "This is the Zodiac speaking."
This flew under the meme radar until December 2015, because the race for the 2016 primaries began rolling, and a Facebook page called "Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer" was launched, and gathered nearly 10,000 likes in two months.
Later, this past February, Twitter user @vrunt tweeted for readers to Google "Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer" all at once, so that it would appear on Google Trends. Later that night, during the CBS broadcast of a Republican presidential debate, lo and behold, what should appear on the sidebar of trending searches...
Ever since then, the meme has been picking up steam, mostly in the form of mock conspiracy investigations, turning up "clues" like this, which is one of my personal favorites, by Tumblr user tedcruzthemarshmallowman.
But it's not all fun and games, either! Some people harness the power of memes for good, such as activist Tim Faust, who has been selling "Ted Cruz Was the Zodiac" shirts to fund abortions for the low-income women of West Texas, where Cruz has targeted reproductive rights by slashing public funding and access to birth control.
Public Policy Polling, notorious for throwing curve ball questions into otherwise serious polls, found that 38 percent of Floridians who answered think that Senator Cruz might be the Zodiac, 28 percent saying they weren't sure, and 10 percent saying they think he is.
Impossible? Probably. Hilarious? Yes. Ridiculous? Who's to say? But after all, Cruz hasn't denied that he's the Zodiac. Just what are you hiding, Teddy?
