Gilligan’s Island's Professor Was the Zodiac Killer–Fiction!

Gilligan’s Island’s Professor Was the Zodiac Killer–Fiction!

 
Summary of eRumor:
Social media posts have questioned whether actor Russell Johnson, best known for his role as Professor Roy Hinkley on the sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” was the Zodiac Killer.

The Truth:
The late Russell Johnson was not the Zodiac Killer.

Empire News, a well known satirical website, first published the bogus report in July 2014. The report claimed Johnson had been posthumously convicted of murders he committed in the 1960s and 1970s, and that his body had been interred at the Washington State Penitentiary Cemetery so the sentence could be served retroactively. The fake story was shared more than 160,000 times on Facebook.

Johnson wasn’t the first popular 1960s-era actor to be pegged as the Zodiac Killer. The Onion, another well known satirical publication, also published a fake news story in July 2013 that reported Dick Van Dyke had confessed to the Zodiac killings.
Posted 10/13/14