Poll Wants to Know: Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer?

A sampling of tweets sent within minutes of each other on Thursday: "I'm confused and I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this. Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer? Or is he not?" and "Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer? I haven't seen him deny it yet? Has he even addressed the controversy? How can we trust someone like Cruz?" And there's more where those came from. In fact, Google's top auto-complete when you type "is ted" is "is ted cruz the zodiac killer." But what started as an Internet joke has now become a real question on a very real poll, Gawker reports. The final question on a survey from Public Policy Polling is asking Florida residents if they believe the presidential candidate from Texas is also the infamous Zodiac killer.

The Zodiac killer is suspected in a string of murders that wrapped up in Northern California in 1969—one year before Cruz was born in Canada, according to Esquire. Regardless of the facts, the first reference to Cruz being the mysterious killer appeared in a 2013 tweet. But the meme started trending on Twitter in January with the hashtag #ZodiacTed. Now it's gotten so big, the New York Daily News reports a Texas activist is selling "Ted Cruz Was the Zodiac Killer" T-shirts to support an abortion rights organization. "OK weird twitter you can have the very last question on the poll," Public Policy Polling tweeted about its decision to include the question. And early results indicate Floridians think it's possible Cruz was the Zodiac killer. After all, he's never denied it. (More Ted Cruz stories.)