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It has been 55 years since a serial murderer nicknamed the “Zodiac Killer” operated in Northern California, killing anywhere from five to 37 people. He has never been identified, but now, a man on TikTok claims that the killer was his grandfather, Richard Hoffman.
The Zodiac Killer was so named because of the series of messages he mailed to regional newspapers which often included astrological symbols and cryptograms, or ciphers, only two of which have been solved. It was in the the last confirmed Zodiac letter in 1974 that he claimed he had killed 37 people.
Over the past 55 years, an untold number of people have attempted to solve the Zodiac murders and determine who the killer was.
The only man ever named by the police as a suspect is Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted sex offender who died in 1992.
In 2023, a team of investigators claimed to have spoken to a whistleblower who said the FBI lab in Virginia has a “partial DNA” sample of the Zodiac Killer and a suspect to go with it.
That suspect was supposedly U.S. Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste.
“I stay in contact with several FBI agents who are my friends from my investigation days,” the whistleblower claimed. “While speaking with one of them, I mentioned Zodiac and specifically Gary Francis Poste (GFP). Without prompting the FBI agent, they look up GFP and told me he was listed as the FBI suspect. Then they told me they had a partial DNA of the Zodiac.”
The FBI and the San Francisco Police Department would both strongly dispute this claim.
Other suspects to have been strongly suggested over the years included Earl Van Best Jr., Louie Myers, Giuseppe Bevilacqua, Lawrence Kane, Paul Doerr, Richard Gaikowski, Richard Marshall, and Ross Sullivan.
Now we can add another name to the list: Richard Hoffman.
A self-proclaimed former cop and U.S. Marine on TikTok has garnered over 10 million views on TikTok with what he claims is evidence that his grandfather, Richard Hoffman, is the Zodiac Killer.
[Warning: he drops a whole lot of f-bombs in these videos while making his case.]
@jfoy_3.0 This is my biological grandfather. My mothers dad. Richard hoffman. My grandpa is the zodiac killer, watch from start to finish i need the power of the internet to push this #truecrime #truecrimetok #zodiackiller #zodiac #truecrime #vallejoca #serialkiller ♬ original sound – J.Foy 🦅 👁️
Just in case you aren’t convinced, he made a follow-up video.
@jfoy_3.0 Follow up on my grandpa being the zodiac killer #truecrime #truecrimetok #zodiackiller #zodiac #vallejoca ♬ original sound – J.Foy 🦅 👁️
And then, just to silence any doubters that might be left out there, he made a third TikTok video about why his grandpa Richard Hoffman is the Zodiac Killer.
@jfoy_3.0 My grandpa is the zodiac killer part 3. #truecrime #truecrimetok #zodiackiller #zodiac #vallejoca #serialkiller #thezodiac ♬ original sound – J.Foy 🦅 👁️