The May Day Mystery

The  University of Arizona (located in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.) students, alumni, alumnus, and many many curious others have become intrigued with the University of Arizona’s May Day Mystery (see article) since it began long ago one May Day in the very early 1970’s.

Since then on every May 1st (a.k.a. May Day and a.k.a. Law Day) and at other seemingly various random times during the year, unknown persons or a secret society historically related to campus have been posting cryptic advertisements in the universities newspaper the Daily Wildcat. The ads posted are mysterious, bizarre, logical, seemingly illogical and highly addictively curious at the very least.

They consist of in depth references to world history, world geography, higher mathematics and sciences, current and ancient world wide languages, ancient events, world religions of today and back into antiquity, puzzles and riddles, and an as yet undiscovered mysterious  treasure of untold wealth.

An enterprising student attending the University of Arizona in Tucson (see video) from Ohio , who was also an employee of the Daily Wild Cat in the mid to late 1990’s, started to notice these very mysterious cryptic advertisements and soon began checking all around campus for more information on what they might possibly mean, and who could have possibly written them.

His inquiries soon got him very curious, so he quickly started a collection of the advertisements, painstakingly scanned them onto a computer with the help of his cat, and put together the first serious comprehensive information website for deeper analysis of the entire mystery. It also soon drew the attention of another student who has proved very elusive not only then, but over the years since that time by the name of  Winston Reynolds.

Within a very short time after the student had started the online website, various communications from all around the world that claimed they were part of the mystery began finding their way to the student in many different forms. Letters, parcels, cryptic messages, ancient gold coins, historic items, manuscripts, and other materials began arriving by mail, email, and in other often bizarre methods.   

Very soon afterwards, the records show that Winston Reynolds suddenly began making regular trips overseas. Travel records indicated visits to London, Paris, Moscow,  Brussels, Stockholm, Berlin, Mexico City, Peking, Tokyo, Geneva, Madrid, Bombay, Cairo, Istanbul, and 3 private audiences with the Pope at the Vatican in Rome.

The other student also seems to have suddenly disappeared at one point and engaged in a very mysterious cross country trip around the United States before returning back to Tucson, only to leave once again shrouded by mystery immediately after graduation ceremonies. Some time after the graduation event, he was traced to the area in the northwest that is the suspected landing area of the infamous D.B. Cooper who disappeared with approximately $250,000.00 dollars (two hundred fifty thousand dollars) after parachuting out of a commercial airliner in 1971 without a trace.  

As for the mysterious Winston Reynolds, he seemingly quickly went from life in a dorm room and walking everywhere like many students on campus, right to a nice home off campus, a BMW, then a 1970's era XKE Jaguar roadster. Yet later, Reynolds was observed on many occasions and always at night, being picked up by an all black 1970's era Bentley sedan while he was still attedning classes as a student.

One of his classmates confided to a Wild Cat reporter, "Winston Reynolds was a really top student, and has to be one of the smartest guys I have ever met. He had this strange chrisma that kind of attracted you if he got close to you like he had magnets in his pockets or something, and no matter what subject came up in a campus conversation he seemed to always have had at least some personal experience to draw from about it. He just always seemed like he was mentally some place else, and holding some great untold unknown secrets."

Mysteriously, Winston Reynolds seemingly completely vanished only a few hours after his graduation ceremony at the University of Arizona. Over the years although allegedly living in one area or another according to reports and eye witness sightings his actual whereabouts to this day remain completely unknown. 

The above university area bungalow, along with the structure that was on the lot before the one above, have been rumored since the beginnings of what was originally the Arizona College of Mines (now the University of Arizona) to be the clandestine meeting place of a secret campus society that dates back to the 1890's in Tucson.  

The many unanswered questions of the Mayday Mystery continue to haunt the grounds of the University of Arizona campus. Are these mysterious postings and happenings all from former students of the past? Could it possibly be a secret group or society who began it all and now faithfully continue the effort after it mysteriously surfaced almost 40 years ago, or possibly even long before that? Are new members still being recruited from certain sections of the ranks of the ever incoming generations of new and current University of Arizona students?     

To delve deeper into the May Day Mystery click Here!

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