The May day mystery:

The May day mystery is a series of ongoing full page adverts, published every may 1^st since 1981, in an Arizona university newspaper called “The wildcat”.

Each published advert would feature the title “SR/CL: (date)” and would usually be signed with a big eared smiley face signature at the bottom.

The Xeroxed cut and paste pages are usually compromised of chaotic, seemingly intellectual gibberish with text in different languages, math equations and scientific diagrams.

Throughout the year there would also be sporadically placed smaller ads, usually with a message or one line of text in multiple languages.

Over time, people began to notice the monthly postings and attempted to work out what they were all about, speculating that the pages were some kind of code. One of those people was a man named Bryan D. Hance. Bryan is an ex student of the Arizona University and also used to work at the Wildcat newspaper.

Hance set up a website dedicated to scanning and cataloguing the adverts, where people can post “clues” in a message board fashion underneath specific articles in an attempt to figure out the seemingly random adverts.

Another interesting point about the website is that in 1999 a group contacted the site host and claimed to be part of the network who was posting the adverts. They referred to themselves as “The orphanage”.  The also indicated that there was some sort of prize if anyone was ever to figure the whole campaign. They gave him their own clues and input as well as sending in physical mail to his P.O box in the form of even more flyers and adverts, photographs, objects and even cash sometimes, with or without relevant serial numbers and always in overly decorated envelopes.

Through a conversation with a previous manager of the Wildcat newspaper, the adverts from the past ten years were placed by a 60 something year old Tucson lawyer by the name of Robert Truman Hungerford.

 Hungerford, a self-proclaimed hermit, apparently had an office filled with encyclopedias and books on history, language, science, philosophy, but when asked about said they were simply chosen because of their colour and aesthetics. It’s unclear as to if he is a part of the adverts or simply obsessed with them. He is also a member of Mensa, but claims to have no involvement with the creation of the adverts, and simply states that he only sends them to publish and does as he is asked.

You can visit Bryan Hance’s website HERE << Click click

And perhaps you’ll also find this Reddit thread interestingtoo << Click click

Finally, maybe you'll find this video interesting: