In parts 1 and 2 of this investigation series we presented various documents that are part of, or connected to, the Cremona Document. Compendium Investigations analysed some of the French words from these documents and we pointed out multiple incoherencies; many words used do not reflect the vocabulary in use until the 18th Century. In part 3, we will examine the “La Formule” which is another document that allegedly belonged to Bill Jackson.
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The discovery of the "La Formule" document and the "Oak Island map"
After Bill Jackson’s alleged death, Don Ruh states that he inherited most of Jackson’s documents and books. Mr Ruh had shared these with researcher Zena Halpern who kept some at her house. The finding of the La Formule seems to be quite astonishing and reflects the cloak and dagger manner that Bill Jackson allegedly proceeded in. While looking through one of the books that Jackson had supposedly left him, Don Ruh found a hand-written note of Jackson’s dating from 1996. There is a transcription of this note in both The Scrolls of Onteora by Don Ruh and The Templar Mission by Zena Halpern, according to them this is what it reads:
“Annati holds the key now – That’s why I use this page.
The Frenchman was right.
They wanted the info about the tunnels,
so they bought the document from me
but they didn’t get it.
Who has it now?
I think it was broken up into 8 parts.
I have 4, what happened to the rest?
1996
La Bella Roma Rollo Mia Monte le Ostrica”
But what does this mean?
Anati (correct spelling) is a recognized Italian archaeologist and author.
The Frenchman could be various people Bill Jackson had allegedly been in contact with. He supposedly met with a few on different occasions.
Why didn’t they get it, if he sold it to them?
What was broken up in 8 parts?
What does this last sentence in Italian mean? Both Don Ruh and Zena Halpern suggest this might mean “The beautiful lady (Rome) Rollo is cleaning the oyster”.
We have not found all the answers to the questions above. We can state with certainty that the Italian sentence has been mistranslated. On page 265 of Zena Halpern’s book there is the photo of Jackson’s handwritten note. For copyright reasons we cannot share this image but if you look closely enough, which our fellow researcher Erin King did, you will see that it is written “La belle donna della mia mente” and on the line underneath “Le Ostrica”. Erin King examined this and realised that the first line is the title of a poem by Oscar Wilde.
After further analysis, “La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente Le Ostrica”, translates to “The Beautiful Woman of My Mind, The Oyster”. In this sense, the oyster may symbolize the innocence, virginity, and youthful attributes of a woman that is the object of adoration. This leads us, and no doubt purposely, to the Oscar Wilde poem for more clues to find out its meaning and context. When looking at the poem and its title, it suggests that this woman may have never existed and was only an invention of the author’s imagination. In this context, where it was used, and by whom it was used, this may suggest that this whole story may have been the perfect invention of someone’s imagination that the author has cleverly veiled in this symbolism in plain sight. Why Jackson or someone else would write the title of an Oscar Wilde poem is certainly intriguing, and what other clues are hidden in this case?
But let’s get back to the reference that was made to Anati holding the key.
A CAPPELLA BOOKS
In the effects that Bill Jackson allegedly left Mr Ruh there was a book written by Emmanuel Anati called Palestine before the Hebrews. It was at Zena Halpern’s house and on a trip to see her, Ruh decided to look at it. They discovered that two pages were glued together like a sort of pocket, inside they found the “La Formule” document and the “map of Oak Island”. The fact that two sheets of paper were folded and concealed between two pages makes us wonder what the point of this was, if it was for concealment how discreet could this actually have been?
It’s an amazing coincidence that the documents were hidden in a book that involved Hebrews and Palestine, considering that Zena Halpern was an expert in early Hebrew language and had a great interest in this subject. It would seem to be a book that Zena would enjoy looking through and would have probably known Emmanuel Anati by name.
The La Formule Document
The "La Formule" document is in two parts, the top part of the document is a text written with symbols, on examination they clearly resemble the symbols from the alleged 90-ft stone. The title above the encoded message is in clear text and reads “La Formule'' which is the French word for "formula". Though it had been pronounced by many people with an A sound on the end, in French it is actually pronounced with a near silent E sound (listen to it here).
The Italians also use the word Formule but as a plural noun which is not the case here. We are certain that this is French. The bottom line also appears to be in French and reads “VING LA VALEUR”, we believe there is a T missing at the end of the first word (VINGT) where the document was cut. This whole line probably means “twenty the value” (which doesn't make much sense).
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The Code:
With these French words it stands to reason that the series of symbols should be deciphered in French, though there are other theories that the original message might have been in another language. Here we will only look at the French solution. The solution that has been put forward by various people is the following (the letters in red are missing from the original and have been hypothesized due to context):
Here a few elements we would like to point out:
“AVEC A ANGLE”: In this construction there are two prepositions next to each other “AVEC” and “A”. This is not grammatically correct. This sentence would translate as “with at angle”.
“HAMPE” : It has been suggested that this word might mean “shaft”. This is correct but not like the shaft in a construction (1), it actually means the shaft of a broom, or a spear. It can also mean a branch without leaves. To us this suggests that this document was made with the use of an English/French dictionary and that the writer wanted to translate “shaft” into French but chose the wrong translation.
The use of the article “UN” in front of “MILLE” is uncommon for a French speaker. We find this same mistake in many of purported Bill Jackson documents.
As with the other documents we have analysed we showed this to our French language specialists, and both have confirmed that there are various constructions that seem unnatural and do not make sense. They agree with our conclusion that this was not written by a French speaker. It seems that this document was originally in English and translated with a dictionary, but what would be the point in doing this? Why would a person unfamiliar with French try to encode French instructions, why wouldn't they simply choose their mother-tongue? Was a French theme necessary for some reason?
The shape:
Another interesting point to mention is that the text is written inside a shape which we imagine represents the original document. The outline of the shape and the coded text were rewritten in what looks like ballpoint-pen and later photocopied. One of the symbols overlaps the shape which doesn't really make sense. If the symbol was originally within the border of the shape, it would not be overlapped on a photocopy of the document.
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To our surprise in The Scrolls of Onteora we learn about two other documents with the same shape as the “La Formule”. According to Don Ruh one of these was found by Bill Jackson while recovering stolen documents for the Federal authorities, and the other labelled as "Fig 240" in Don Ruh's book, is a piece of a larger document supposedly representing "possible tunnels under Oak Island". We layered these documents together and they have revealed the same shape.
"Fig 240" is part of a series of 7 oddly shaped documents that fit together like a puzzle and show the schematics of some sort of shaft. In Ruh’s book he calls it “Part one of seven”. This is an important piece of information to remember and clearly represents some suspicious coincidences. It should also be noted that puzzle pieces like this were not invented until around 1760 by London cartographer, John Spilsbury, who glued a map on a piece of wood and cut out the countries.
The Clear text part:
On the bottom of the page of La Formule document there is a note written in French which reads:
*On the note we can see that the last word actually ends in N, this has been written over with a é, the original word would be “MARIN” which translates as MARITIME or NAVAL or SAILOR. In this context it probably means MARITIME (CEMETERY).
Here are a few remarkable points concerning this note:
The French grammar is very good, accents are in the right place, the participles agree with the subjects, and it is very well written.
The only problem with the grammar concerns the writing of the date; like in many of the documents belonging to Bill Jackson there is the article UN in front of MILLE, French speakers do not add an article in front of the word THOUSAND in this context, but English speakers tend to make this mistake very often.
Someone has chosen to write an E over the N in “MARIN”, why?
The word “CIMETERY” is a mix of French and English spelling it should be “CIMETIERE”.
“UN DES SEPT” meaning "One of the seven” and not “One of seven” as it is sometimes translated, suggests this is part of a series of seven documents. Coincidentally, this reminds us of the document that has the same shape as the “La Formule” and that Don Ruh called “Part one of seven”, which is Fig 240.
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What is the purpose of this text? Certain researchers have suggested that the first part of the text is a eulogy for a Mr. Hayward. Indeed, it seems that this sentence is a very classic eulogy that can be seen in many obituaries in French newspapers, this might explain the perfect wording and grammar, the only mistake being the writing of the date which probably suggests that the text was copied from a French source and then modified to fit Mr. Hayward’s death.
Concerning the second part starting with “The wind is rising…”, in a specialised post from 2016, a certain ShaneX suggests that this is a line from a Poem called Le Cimetiere Marin by Paul Valery, we can only conclude that this suggestion is correct. Paul Valery’s poem does indeed contain the line “The wind is rising, we must attempt to live”. As for the poem itself, the location is a seaside area that has a cemetery and a temple. These are two features that some theorists have suggested may have involved Oak Island at some point in history.
It seems that the more we work things out, the more the plot thickens. Why is there a reference to a Mr. Hayward? From the Eulogy we are informed that he died on the 7th of January 1978, and that he was in his 80th year. Using the little information we had, we searched for My Hayward in all the usual databases, the Eulogy being in French, we started our search for Haywards in French speaking countries, we then searched internationally. We found nothing that could explain a connection between the Hayward name specifically and Oak Island so far.
The McInnis connection:
According to the signature at the bottom of the document, it was given to W. David Jackson by Tim (Jim) McInnis. Don Ruh states this in his book. We know that after Jim’s death the McGinnis family found a copy of the "La Formule" in his belongings, which consisted of three boxes of assorted Oak Island newspaper clippings, theories, other docs, and misc. items. Allegedly, the "La Formule" document was hidden in a wall of the McGinnis home on Oak Island as told by his immediate family members. Other family members disagree.
James “Jim” McInnis was very preoccupied with the Oak Island treasure hunt, knowing his family connection to the island this is not surprising; he is a descendant of Daniel McGinnis that allegedly discovered the Money Pit. We had the chance to read Oak Island Connection, a book written by Jean, Joan, Joyce McGinnis and Kerrin Margiano, who are all related to Jim McGinnis. In the book it's conveyed that Jim McGinnis did indeed have a copy of the "La Formule" and that there was already a paragraph in French at the bottom when it was rediscovered after his death. Why would there be a eulogy for Mr. Hayward written on this document? It should be noted that Jim was a merchant sailor at one point according to a McGinnis family member.
Jim McGinnis was allegedly an undercover agent for the CIA as reported by his immediate family (which reminds us of the supposed work Bill Jackson did with the Spartan Agency). We can confirm that Jim McGinnis was in the US army from 1968-1971, but we cannot confirm that he ever was a Green Beret or worked in intelligence before or after the Vietnam War as claimed in the book and by some of his family members. Jim allegedly worked and lived in the New York area at one time, which is also where Bill Jackson allegedly lived at some point. Don Ruh is also local to this area, did he or Bill Jackson meet with Jim McGinnis to obtain the "La Formule"? Why would Jim McGinnis give it to somebody else? Or did someone else provide this document to Jim McGinnis?
On the bottom of the "La Formule" there is a note that Jim McGinnis addresses Bill Jackson as W. David Jackson. We have not seen any other documents in which Bill Jackson is addressed with his middle name in full. Does this suggest they were close? How many letters do you receive with your first name initialed and your middle name in full? Here Jim writes his name “McInnis” while on two of the letters he wrote, which are included in the Oak Island Connection book, Jim signs his letters as “McGinnis”. Did he change the spelling of his name or was this written by somebody else? Why would he identify himself as Tim? To the Compendium's knowledge, the McGinnis copy of La Formule does not have the note of transfer between McInnis and Jackson, which suggests that the note was made later by someone else.
Regarding our previous remarks on the “un des sept” or “one of the seven”, it is highly suspicious that Bill Jackson allegedly found multiple documents with the same shape and then happened to be given another document by a McGinnis descendant with the exact same shape. This one having some of the same symbols as the 90ft stone cipher and being allegedly in the wall of the McGinnis foundation on Oak Island. This raises some red flags in our opinion.
The 90 foot stone connection:
It appears that some of the same symbols were used in both the alleged 90-foot stone cipher and La Formule. According to eyewitness reports, the 90 FT stone existed and had strange markings/carvings on it. The cipher was not publicly known until 1948 when it appeared in Edward Rowe Snow's Mysteries and Adventures Along the Atlantic Coast. This cipher was attributed to Reverend A.T. Kempton who reported that he received it in 1909 from a retired teacher in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, for a book Kempton was planning on writing. The teacher is suspected of having been James Lietchi, who was a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax from 1865 to 1906. Lietchi was retired and living in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1909. Compendium Investigations has completed an investigation into the 90ft stone cipher and will publish this series immediately after our current investigation.
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There is also another document that has been shown on The Curse of Oak Island TV show that has the same 90-foot stone symbols. It was presented to the Oak Island team by Philip Stephenson, a descendant of Robert Donston Stephenson who became a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case of 1888. The documents are partly encoded with the 90-foot symbols and have various annotations in English.
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We believe the "Donston documents" were simply copied from the “La Formule” document as there is the same wording and the same mistakes on both. The fact that the more complicated text was written in English suggests the author of this document was not French and their usage of the French language was limited to recopying the "La Formule" solution.
In next week’s final part of our investigation, the Compendium will look at the "Oak Island map" which has been branded as the "Zena Map". We will share with you our analysis by presenting parts of an article we wrote together in 2021. We will also examine the senseless controversy that has come-out since Zena Halpern first showed the map on The Curse of Oak Island TV show in 2016.
Bonne journée de la part du Compendium! - Good day from the Compendium!
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