The hypothesis first originated out of nowhere in early 2013, when a Twitter account with the handle @RedPillAmerica posted a nonsensical joke that Cruz’s upcoming speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that year would be titled “This Is the Zodiac Speaking.” It took more than a year for the joke to resurface on the social media platform in a completely unrelated context. “Ted Cruz’s Chilling Deathbed Confession: ‘I am the Zodiac Killer,’” user @Flash2844 tweeted, ending the post with the hashtag #TedCruzIsTheZodiacKiller.