Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer

About

Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer refers to a mock conspiracy theory suggesting that the 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is the unidentified serial killer nicknamed the “Zodiac Killer,” who claimed to have killed 37 people in a series of anonymous letters in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Origin

On March 14th, 2013, the Twitter feed @RedPillAmerica^[2] posted a a tweet claiming that an upcoming Cruz speech would be titled “This is the Zodiac Speaking” (shown below).

Spread

On November 10th, 2014, Twitter user @Flash2844^[6] tweeted that Cruz’ deathbed confession would be “I am the Zodiac Killer” along with the hashtag “#TedCruzIsTheZodiacKiller” (shown below).

On December 15th, 2015, a Facebook^[8] page titled “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer” was launched, garnering upwards of 9,400 likes over the next two months. On January 20th, 2016, Twitter user @Lindzeta^[10] posted a fake quote of Cruz confessing to the Zodiac Killer murders (shown below, left). That evening, Twitter user @ZeppoWilbury^[5] tweeted that Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada and that the Zodiac Killer’s first victims were named “Cal and Gary” (shown below, right).

On February 13th, 2015, Twitter user @vrunt^[1] tweeted for readers to Google the phrase “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer” en masse for the phrase to appear on Google Trends. That day, he posted a screenshot of the phrase displayed during a CBS broadcast of that evening’s Republican presidential debate with the caption “holy shit we did it” (shown below).

On February 17th, activist Tim Faust began selling t-shirts printed with a depiction of Cruz as the Zodiac Killer (shown below).^[9] On February 20th, Twitter user Tim Nunley pointed out that Cruz was born after the killer’s infamous murders.^[4] On February 26th, NPR^[3] reported that many of the people involved in popularizing the meme think Cruz is “creepy.” On February 23rd, the On February 26th, the news site The Verge^[7] published an article about the history of the theory.

Larry Wilmore’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Jokes

On April 30th, 2016, comedian Larry Willmore repeatedly referred to Ted Cruz as the “Zodiac Killer” during his closing act at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (shown below). The following day, Redditor youramazing submitted a post about the event to the /r/The_Donald^[12] subreddit, referring to Willmore as an “absolute madman”. On May 2nd, 2016, Yahoo News^[11] asked Cruz’s wife to respond to Willmore’s jokes, to which she replied “Well, I’ve been married to him for 15 years, and I know pretty well who he is, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”