In the late 1960s residents of California’s San Francisco Bay Area were gripped by fear due to a mysterious serial killer who left cryptic clues for the police. The enigma of the so-called “Zodiac Killer” remains unsolved to this day and is considered the most infamous unresolved murder case in American history and has been revisited in a new Netflix series, This is the Zodiac Speaking.

It has sparked numerous documentaries and fictional portrayals from Dirty Harry to The Batman. However, a Californian TikTok user named J Foy not only claims to have identified the dreaded killer but also asserts that he is the murderer’s grandson.

Foy revealed: “This is not just based off physical appearance. I typed in my grandpa’s name on Google the other day and, to my surprise ,internet sleuths have been throwing my grandpa’s name around for years connecting him as the Zodiac motherf*****g killer.He produced a number of photos of his grandpa, Richard Hoffman, dating back to the time of the Zodiac’s reign of terror, and, he says, they look ” He presented several photos of his grandfather, Richard Hoffman, from the time of the Zodiac’s reign of terror, and according to him, they look “exactly like him.”

Foy further mentioned that his grandfather was a police officer in Vallejo, northern California, which could potentially explain how the notorious serial killer might have managed to avoid being caught – if the claims are of course true.

The Zodiac Killer, officially linked to five murders, claimed in letters sent to the police that he had killed 37 people. Two of the confirmed victims, Michael Renault Mageau and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, were driving around Vallejo one night when they were followed by a car, similar to an unmarked police vehicle, reports the Mirror.

This occurred on a night when the grandfather of the speaker was on duty, driving an unmarked police car and wearing plain clothes. True crime podcaster Kris Collins continues the narrative: “When (Mageau and Ferrin) were driving around, a car was supposedly following them the whole time …like a police car might do… and this was the same night that his grandfather was supposedly on duty, doing his own patrol in an unmarked car and wearing civilian clothes.”

After being pursued, they parked in the Blue Rock Springs parking lot, where the killer’s car pulled up next to them.

The killer exited his vehicle and Ferrin reportedly said ‘Oh my God that’s Richard, he’s going to kill us both’ – a statement made due to her secret relationship with a police officer.

Mageau later stated that Ferrin “knew” the Zodiac killer, referring to him as “Richard” just before her death. The speaker mentions in his TikTok that Ferrin, although married, was known to be dating multiple men simultaneously and was particularly afraid of one of them: “It was well known by her friend group that she was dating a Vallejo cop, although she never told them the name.”

Hoffman reportedly “showed up uninvited” to a party at Ferrin’s residence, where she expressed to her friends that she was “scared to death of him.”

Foy goes on to highlight: “My grandpa denies these claims – he says he never laid eyes on her. But he then later goes on to say ‘I know that she worked at a restaurant locally here in Vallejo.’ How the f*** have you never laid eyes on her Grandpa? You tell me about that!”

Foy also draws attention to the fact that his grandfather consistently misspelled “until” as “untill,” a quirk shared by the Zodiac in his taunting letters to the police. Adding to the pile of circumstantial evidence, Foy notes that Cheri Bates, believed to be the Zodiac’s initial victim, had relocated to the Bay Area from Nebraska just like his grandfather.

On the night of her murder, Bates was at the Riverside college library, and it’s believed her killer sabotaged her blue Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot to make her an easier target. Kris Collins reveals another chilling detail: a graphic poem about murder was discovered under the desk where Bates had been studying.

“Forensic analysis states that the poem, due to the spelling style, is confirmed to be from the Zodiac Killer …and to add another weirder layer to everything, the initials alongside the poem are RH – the initials of his grandfather.”

While it remains uncertain whether the infamous Zodiac Killer was responsible for Bates’s murder, it appears likely that she knew her killer. A detailed “confession,” believed to be from the serial killer, was sent to a local newspaper, stating his motive was “making her pay for the brush-offs that she had given me during the years.”

In 1971, the Zodiac Killer penned a letter to the Los Angeles Times, explicitly claiming responsibility for Bates’s murder and suggesting there were many more undiscovered victims.

Foy also revealed that his grandfather, known in the family as controlling, manipulative, and unfaithful, could have been a suspect. However, these claims are unlikely to ever be substantiated as his grandfather is no longer alive.

The first episode of ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’ premiered on Netflix today (Wednesday, October 23).