By combining results from a variety of mass spectrometric techniques (metastable ion, collisional activation, collision-induced dissociative ionization, neutralization-reionization spectrometry and appearance energy measurements) and the classical method of isotopic labelling, a unified mechanism is proposed for the complex unimolecular chemistry of ionized 1,Zpropanediol. The key intermediates involved are the stable hydrogen-bridged radical cations [CH,=C(H)-0 * -* H -* -O(H)CH ,I+', which were generated independently from [4-metboxy, l-butanol]" (loss of C,H,) and [l-methoxyglyceroll" (loss of CH,O), [CH,-C=O * --He * -O(H)CH ,I+' and the related ion-dipole complex [CH,=C(OH)CH,/H,O]+'. The latter species serves as the precursor for the loss of CH,' and in this reaction the same non-ergodic behaviour is observed as in the loss of CH,' from the ionized enol of acetone.