The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Strangest Paranormal Case of All Time: Gef the Talking Mongoose

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Was he a spirit, a hoax, or something else entirely? Gef the Talking Mongoose is one of the strangest paranormal cases ever recorded. In the 1930s, a small family on the Isle of Man claimed they were haunted by a mysterious talking creature with a mischievous personality. Some believed he was a ghost, others thought he was a cryptid, and skeptics called it a hoax. But decades later, the mystery of Gef remains unsolved. Join us as we explore this bizarre and chilling case. Support the channel with Patreon - www.patreon.com/thetapelibrary Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in video form at www.youtube.com/thetapelibrary Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Additional footage and audio from Epidemic, Evanto, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels.  All other footage used under fair use. 00:00 Harry Price 02:38 Gef the Talking Mongoose 03:17 Old Soil 05:34 Buying A House 10:10 Jack 24:03 My Name is Gef 37:25 The Investigation 51:52 Gef & the Law 54:05 Nandor Fodor 58:33 Fading Away 1:05:47 What Really Happened? 1:16:54 Wrapping Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to ask you to suspend your disbelief because what's happened here is unbelievable. It's a story filled with ludicrous ideas, a story that doesn't make sense at times. But nonetheless, a story that was apparently very real to one family, their neighbours, and those who dared to come and see what was happening for themselves. But it's a story you need to hand yourself over to and let it take you where it needs to go. In the world of the strange, this one is rather unique. In 1932, famed psychic researcher Harry Price was not in the best of circumstances. Price had gained a certain level of notoriety over the years for exposing fraudulent claims of psychic abilities and the paranormal.

Most notably at this point, debunking William Hope's famous spirit photographs, he found himself stuck between two worlds, a science-based one and a spiritualist one. The various psychical research institutes that had sprung up over the years were not thrilled with Price's connection to spiritualist groups, while the spiritualists saw him as a skeptic, intent on destroying their work. He was also a key part in the formation of what would become the British Film Institute,

a detail that will become important later. It was some time early that year that Price was sitting alone in his study, flicking through letters and articles, looking for a new case, something to really sink his teeth into. When he came across something that caught his attention, A letter from a woman named Florence Milburn. The letter was referring to an incident that had not happened to her,

but to someone who was living on a nearby farm. Apparently the local area had been a buzz with rumours and wild claims that were taking place. The letter read, Dear sir, I beg you to forgive me for presuming on your valuable time and attention, but I feel sure you will be interested from a scientific point of view in what I tell you. In the heart of the country, between Glen Main and Dalby, is a small farmhouse occupied by a Mr and Mrs Irving and one daughter. Last September, they noticed a strange animal in their farmyard amongst the fowls, similar to a weasel. Sometime after that, they began to hear a very loud thumping on the wooden partitions.

On hearing the knocking, Mr Irving spoke, calling it to stop, and was surprised on hearing it, Speak back. Price was instantly intrigued and decided to get in touch with the family. And so began one of the strangest paranormal tales of all time. What started as a genuinely creepy tale, took Price and many others into a rabbit hole they could have never expected. Get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights and get comfortable. It's time to talk about one of my favorite ghost stories, if you can call it that, of all time.

This is the strange case of the Dalby Spook, or, as it's sometimes known, the story of Jeff, the Talking Mungoose. I think it's worth going back a little in time, because according to some of the locals, the moments the Irvings arrived wasn't exactly the start of the strange activity in the area. Our story takes place at Dawlishkeshen, a remote farm on the Isle of Man, which for those not familiar is an island situated on the Irish Sea, between a story. Ireland and England. The farm, particularly today, isn't easy to get to. Situated away from the nearest village up a steep hill and is said to be around 70 acres in size. The area appears to have its fair share of local ghost stories and folklore. One story from early in the 1900s tells of men digging in the area and discovering a flat stone. When they pulled it up, beneath was an urn containing ashes. The two men who discovered it,

decided to bury it in the ground below a hedge bank, moving it from its original position. Sometime after this, a young man was hunting rabbits with his dog. When he saw a small furry animal dart under the hedge, the man reached in, pulling at the dirt under the hedge where he was convinced the animal had burrowed itself, and was now cornered. He had no idea he was pulling up the ground that now housed the urn. Suddenly he fell backwards, falling to the ground. The man froze for a moment and righted himself back up to continue digging, certain that he had just lost his balance. When all of a sudden he was pushed back again.

More violently this time, it was enough to spook him to such an extent that he ran back to the village. Another local around this time reports walking alone one night towards Dalby. This man claims he was followed for three miles by something strange. A voice. but with no one else around. The voice sung hymns to him and berated him, telling him he needed to live a better life. When the man reached a hill that led up to Dawlishkeshen,

he claimed that he felt like he was being pushed towards it. But the man resisted and rushed back home. Others spoke of strange animals that haunted the land, but not in specific details. It was a strange choice for James Irving to buy Dorlishkeshen, The man had been living in Liverpool with his wife Margaret and their two children, Elsie and Gilbert. James would be described as a cosmopolitan man. He was often well-dressed and lived in a nice house and had an interest in multiple languages.

He worked for a piano company that was based in Canada and at times would travel as part of his role as a sales agent. However, this all fell apart during the First World War and James was forced to try his hand at a few different trades before strangely coming across Dorlishkeshen in November of 1916. He invested some of what he had left of his savings, 310 pounds, on this remote farm despite having no experience of farming. The house was old. Irving believed it was around 130 years old at the point he purchased it, but some experts claim that the construction points to it being much older than that, potentially medieval. Previously the estate had belonged to a French refugee, named Pierre Baum, a rather eccentric character according to the locals, and one who, some, some,

suggested, still haunted the land. Initially, it appears Irving had no intention of living there. He knew it would require a decent amount of work to get it up and running, but he intended to turn it into a working farm once again. However, when his other attempts a new career failed, James moved to the island with his wife and daughter Elsie, staying at a nearby cottage while the renovation work was complete. However, the first of the workers James hired didn't stay for long. In May of 1917, James had hired two men from the nearby town of Peel to work on the house. Rather than them having to walk the long and difficult trek to the farm, he had arranged for them to stay there while working. On the second night, both men came to

James's cottage to tell him they were leaving. When he was, He asked why they said they had another job to do in town that night. But years later, the two men would confess to Irvin the real reason. One of the men had been hearing strange sounds the entire time they had been there, as well as a feeling he described as uncanny. He didn't get into specifics, but whatever he was experiencing was enough for them to walk the four miles back into town, in the middle of the night, rather than stay in the house a second longer.

James' son Gilbert took over the initial running of the farm and the family moved in on September of 1917. But after several years of working on the lonely farm in the middle of nowhere, both Gilbert and Elsie moved back to the mainland. Luckily, Margaret and James were not left totally alone, as in March of 1918, Margaret had given birth to another daughter named Vori. The farmhouse was isolated, dark throughout all times of the day, and the family at times wouldn't receive a visitor for months on end. It was a lonely existence seemingly. But James at least didn't seem to mind too much, and would happily make conversation with anyone he met in the local area, attempting to integrate himself as best as he could, but still looking for a higher quality of conversation than he thought the local farmers could provide by joining him. the local freemasons.

His daughter and wife, however, were more reserved. The family was sometimes viewed as a little strange by the locals, calling them eccentric, some even cruelly describing Margaret as witch-like, although this characteristic would be echoed by some investigators in the future. The big part of this, though, is that they were outsiders. In a rural area, full of people who had lived on the island their whole lives, these were well-sposed city folk from the mainland. Some thought that James in particular acted like he was above some of the locals. Writers on this topic have noticed the echoes of how witches were treated in the olden days.

Often they were simply people who lived further away from the community, who maybe behaved a little strangely compared to what the locals were used to. And of course, many of those witches were said to have familiars. Small were animals that could do their business. bidding, and it wouldn't be long until the Irvings would have their own. It seems the activity started in September of 1931, around the time that Vori had turned 13. And it's so often the case it started with a simple noise, a tapping late at night. James and Margaret were sat there when they heard it coming from above, a sort of repeated

tap between the wooden ceiling and their roof. James, convinced it was mice, went up to investigate. He looked around but he couldn't find anything. But he did notice something strange. There was a little Indian wood cutting that he owned, laying on the floor in the middle of the attic. It was odd. James had no memory of putting it up there. Curious, he picked up the object and dropped it to the floor again.

It created the same sound that he and Margaret had been hearing from below. A couple of nights later, they heard it again. The tapping. But this time it was followed by the sound of something running. Convinced again it must be some sort of animal, James said out loud, That is no mouse. This was much larger. This claim seemed to cause whatever was running around above them.

To respond. It barked like a dock, then hissed like a cat. It then growled, before repeating the various sounds over and over. Then there was a sudden loud cracking noise, and simultaneously a picture frame on the other side of the room shook from side to side. Then, silence. Understandably, the Irvings were baffled, but once again when they went to inspect, there was nothing there.

At some point in October, James and Vorry apparently caught sight of some running around. It looked about nine inches long with yellowish fur. James was convinced it looked like a stote or a weasel. Over the following days the sounds continued, before they seemed to warp from the sounds of animals to almost the babbling of a baby, then then back to the sounds of an animal. Curious, James decided to try and interact with the sound. Bear in mind, the family had been living a secluded, lonely life on the farm for quite some time. this point. There wasn't a whole lot of entertainment to be had. When the creature barked, James said out loud, dog, and the sound on the other side of the wall repeated the word back to him.

When it hissed, he said cat. Again, the voice repeated what James had said. This continued for weeks, but very quickly the voice became very articulate. It acted as though it were learning to talk from James, but Irving admits there is no way this could be possible in such a short space of time. It was almost like the voice was toying with him, pretending it was learning from him, and James was happy to play along. James later noted in his diaries that he believes it pretended to learn as a way of easing the family in. If it had just started talking, James admits that most people would just instantly leave the house. but this gradual phasing of sounds to voice made them feel strangely more comfortable around it.

The voice was unusual, high-pitched. Most witnesses described it as higher than a human voice. The voice began to talk to the family more and more and claimed that they should call it Jack. Curiously, the Irving family still seemed convinced that this was some sort of animal and the voice apparently confirmed their suspicion, telling them he was in fact a weasel. But quickly the family's amusement at this stranger current turned to fear.

The creature, whatever it was, could be heard running around behind the wooden panelling that ran throughout the house. Its voice often being heard from the small holes that could be found around the property. It would bang loudly on the walls and laugh, a manacle laugh that the family would often describe a satanic, keeping them awake, laid. into the night but the reason for their belief that it was a physical creature was that it appeared to be very physical they could hear it running at times it would spit through the holes at the family they would find small puddles of urine on the floor in his diary james wrote that he believed this thing

was trying to drive them away it did not seem to like the family and he mentions various objectionable acts that he does not want to put into writing some of these may have been discussed later though when James told investigators of the creatures, at times sexualised taunting of Margaret. In one such case as she was getting ready for bed, the voice would describe each item of clothing she was removing, until Margaret quickly became terrified and covered herself up. The couple lay in bed one night and James whispered to his wife, What in the name of God can this thing be? loudly the voice repeated James's words in a mocking tone if James sat up in bed at any point

the voice would yell at him to lay back down calling him a devil as it did if he went to the toilet in the middle of the night the voice would loudly describe what James was doing so that it could be heard throughout the house this was another curious detail the voice sounded like it would come from a specific area but somehow it also reverberated around the so everyone could hear it to some degree. It would sing small parts of hymns and songs. It would even throw objects most often rocks at the family. James became concerned that the creature may move on to kitchen knives. But despite the Irving's curious belief that this was in fact some sort of animal still, the voice started to disagree, telling them in

its own words that it was a ghost in the form of a weasel and it intended to haunt them. This apparently particularly scared the young girl, Vori. James and Margaret have made a point to try and not show fear to whatever this creature was, but it clearly spotted a weakness in the Irving's daughter, and it began more and more often to focus its attention on her. Early on, James had been to see his neighbour, Ian Corlett, and had asked the man to borrow a rat trap, claiming he had some sort of weasel in the walls of his house. A week later, Ian saw James again and asked him if he had managed to catch it. James told the man, no. The blinking fingers started talking. Ian stood there. Not quite sure he understood Irving's weird joke. Two months after the strange activity had

begun, Margaret was away and James and his daughter had both gone to bed. When they were awoken by a loud scream, Vori asked her father what was going on. James thought he had finally gotten the creature. He had left a piece of bread with rat poison on it near the top of the stairs, and it appeared Jack had found it. For 20 minutes the screaming continued. Vori covering her ears, disturbed by the pained screams of the poor creature. Then suddenly it stopped. Vori climbed a ladder and looked into a lost space, where the screams had apparently been coming from. But nothing was there. The voice went quiet for a few days, before making a sudden return. Again, another number. the family was awoken by its screams and gargles of pain.

This time non-stop for a full half hour, but seemingly the creature wasn't sick, nor dying. It was just teasing James for his misguided attempt at leaving out the poison, telling the family later that he did it for the devilment. James attempted to block up the many holes in the home, believing that the creature was using them to move around the house quickly, but it did nothing to stop it. The voice started to become increasingly aggressive towards worry. Threatening her, throwing stones, James and Margaret decided to move her into their bedroom at night.

While dismantling the girl's bed, Jack stomped around in the walls, screaming and shouting, smashing against them with a violent force. Once the bed was moved, the voice shouted, apparently trembling with rage that it would follow her. wherever they moved her. That night, terrified, James barricaded the door with chairs and a dresser. At some point, something began banging on the door with such a force that it caused the door to bulge. And then the voice was heard, screaming that it was coming in. The banging went silent for a moment. Before a large pot in the room flew from one side, crashing into the floor.

The Irvings desperately searched, but again, no sign of the creature could be found. These first six months were apparently hell for the family. The voice was angry and antagonistic, mocking and attempting to scare the family away with every chance it got. Rumours of the creature had begun to spread. People would come up to the farm to try and get a look at what was going on. It became such an issue that James had to put up barricades to start. stop trespassers and later signs informing people that they could enter the farm by appointment only. But James and Margaret would often visit the much larger nearby town of Pill to visit family and for work.

As they told their story to their friends and family, the word quickly got out. There wasn't much going on in the area in those days, so fantastical tales about a talking weasel obviously sparked the imagination. In January of 1932, even the media had started paying. attention to the story. Over in England, a journalist was sent to the island from the Daily Dispatch to investigate. The journalist arrived at the farm and was met by James Irving. The reporter told James that he had come to find out if the rumors were true, that the house was haunted. James told the reporter it wasn't. There were no spooks in his home, but he is worried about the amount of people that was suddenly trying to visit the farm. Despite this, James invited the man in

and told him the whole story. He told the man he had gotten the creature to say phrases in English, German, Yiddish, Spanish, Flemish and Hebrew. Apparently the little creature was as interested in languages as James himself was. He also claimed that the voice could hold a conversation and could tell the family about events that were happening in the nearby village. James stated that the creature had never taken any food, despite having the opportunities to do so. He also gave the reporter the name of several locals who had visited the farm and heard the voice. James told the reporter that they had considered leaving, but that the stories about the place

were having a negative impact on the property, claiming it seemed it would be difficult to sell, with the locals all making claims that the place was haunted. The journalist went to leave, but as he did, James called him back, saying the voice had started talking. They crept up to the open door and there he heard it. This strange, high-pitched voice that he would later claim he didn't believe could come from a human throat. The voice was talking to Margaret in another room. She, believing the reporter had left, was telling it that the man had gone. The voice was seemingly suspicious of outsiders visiting the home, but the voice disagreed with her,

saying that the reporter hadn't left, and that it could hear. him whispering, which he was currently doing to James. Then it said, I won't talk for these people. They are all liars before falling silent. This reporter appears to be the origin point for one of the more widely reported possible explanations for the voice's existence. And that is that Vori was a skilled ventriloquist. However, while he felt this was possible, he didn't see any evidence that the girl had this talent and was somehow responsible for the voice.

This is a claim that seems to divide quite a few people involved in the case, but we'll get into that a little later. The reporter left, though, with a profound belief that at the very least, James Irving seemed to genuinely believe the voice was real, and that he was convinced it was some sort of miraculous animal, not a paranormal entity. Early in 1932, James and Vori potentially got another look at the creature when they looked out their window to see in the garden what appeared to be a very large cat,

striped like a tiger. Its head even larger, almost resembling a bulldog. It had no tail, much like the Manx cats that lived on the island, but it was far too large to be one. When they went outside, they could find no trace of the animal. They noticed this strange sighting. but the description didn't seem to match whatever was inside their home. But when Margaret returned that night, James was telling her about what they had seen,

when the voice interrupted him, saying, it was me you saw Jim, Jim being what the creature would call James. This became a common thing with sightings of the creature. People would often report him as looking different to what others had seen, leading some to suggest that he was somehow capable of changing his, appearance. Not long after this, James had looked out his window to see two boys on his property, hunting rabbits. He went outside to talk to the boys, inquiring about their names. It soon became apparent that he actually knew one of them. He was the son of a man named Jeff Lowry,

who had once worked on the farm. Again, the evening arrived and James was talking to Margaret in the kitchen. Conversations in the home were no longer ever private. Jack was was always around to hear. Shortly after the voice shouted out, I don't like the name Jack. Call me Jeff. Apparently the voice was only able to spell out words phonetically, and this is where the strange spelling of G-E-F for Jeff came from. Furthermore, not long after this, Jeff decided that he was not a ghost, telling the Irvins that he was in fact just an extra special mongoose who could talk. One issue was, this being that the descriptions of those who claim to see Jeff rarely matched up with the

description of a mongoose. But this information was enough for James, who for some strange reason still believed he was dealing with an animal that had apparently learnt to talk. Jeff claimed that he was born in India 80 years prior and had ended up coming to England after briefly being in Egypt. It seemed though that Jeff wasn't a recent arrival, not having a recent arrival, not having a all the information to connect the earlier tales of strange activity around the farm at this point, they hadn't even considered it. But Jeff would make references to friends of the family who they hadn't seen in years. As well as the Irving's two older children who had moved away some time ago at this point, Jeff apparently revealing that he did not like the older Irving girl in

particular. Vori's bed stayed in her parents' bedroom for several months after the initial move, But this seemed to be around the time that Jeff stopped harassing the family, or at least he did it less often. Jeff claimed that initially he thought the family didn't like him, that they would try to make him leave. An understandable reaction, considering James had attempted to poison him, but he now seemingly wanted to live in some sort of harmony with the family. He continued to be increasingly attached to Vori in particular, following her everywhere she went, even when she would leave the family. Vori attended the nearby school in Darby Village. James had gone to meet her one day and ended up chatting to her teacher, Miss Creer, about Jeff. As I said, rumours of the strange creature had begun to circulate in the community, and James was all too happy to talk to anyone about it. Apparently much to the dismay of his wife and daughter, who, while fascinated by Jeff themselves, were more keen to keep the whole thing quiet,

until they understood exactly what they were dealing with. Despite having been alone with no one else in earshot when talking to his daughter's teacher, on the walk back home, James Envori heard Jeff's voice. He demanded to know why James had been talking about him and what he had told the teacher. This became something of a common occurrence in the months and years that followed. Jeff was happy to eavesdrop on other's conversations both at the farm and in the wider a community, but he did not like it if others took an interest in him without his consent. He seemed to want to remain the family's secret, although Jeff's moods and opinions on most

subjects seemed to change on a whim regularly. If Jeff was sneaky and hard to spot, or actually invisible, seemed to be a difficult question to answer. There was a relatively early report, though, of a worker on the farm, claiming he saw a sandwich. floating through the air low to the ground and disappearing into the bushes, as though it were being carried by an invisible squirrel. Early on, Jeff apparently claimed to have no stomach, that he relied purely on air to survive. But when in early 1932 the family started leaving food out for him,

he eagerly gobbled it up. Lean bacon, bananas and chocolate were all apparently favourites of Jeff. Margaret claimed that she was even a... to feed Jeff by hand once when she saw a small fluffy shape running along the beams of the home one night she held up some food and he took it she didn't get a good look at him from the position she was in before he scurried away but she felt his teeth on her finger he would still regularly create loud bangs that would shake the entire house the Irvins explained a strange detail about the creature that suggested how he may be able to do this while he looked very much like a weasel or similar animal they claimed he had hands each with three fingers that

disturbingly resembled human hands but much smaller this allowed him to grip objects throw them and even bang his fists when annoyed he had shown these before by poking them through a hole in the wall of or his bedroom Jeff would laugh at times a creepy and disturbing laugh, others more playful and fun. He loved to sing and not just in English, but also Spanish, the local dialect manx, and apparently in Hindi, although some have pointed out that many of the phrases that Jeff uses in Hindi are incorrect or don't really translate well, which seems odd considering his claims of being from India, although it's worth noting this is just one of many Indian languages. When he would leave the house and return, strangely the only animals that

seemed to react to his presence were the geese, who would make sounds when Jeff was returning to the farm. The family's sheepdog apparently had no interest in the mongoose. Jeff even had his own space in the Irving's home that was referred to as his sanctum. To the right of the stairs on the upper floor was a ledge. The stairs were boxed in by a wooden partition where the ledge was. Technically, this led into Tivori's room, but seemingly was also accessible through the parents' room, allowing Jeff to move between the two. They would often leave his food there. They also believed this is where Jeff liked to sleep, although they would never catch him in the act. There was also a wooden chair here, that they would often hear Jeff pushing around, claiming that he used it for exercise.

Jeff enjoyed playing with toys, and visitors to the home would bring him gifts like bouncy balls and, chocolate to try and win favour with the strange creature. Two local boys, Will Cubborn and Harry Hall, came to visit, eager to meet Jeff. The boys, in fact, did see a creature running around their garden that matched Jeff's description, but not at the farm. James took them into Vori's room and showed them a fastening on the outside, telling them that on occasion Jeff would lock the girl in her room and that it couldn't be done from the inside of the room.

as a demonstration. Vori went inside and the boys went into the kitchen, asking Jeff to do it. Sure enough, he did. They also heard Jeff singing and claimed that the creature had quite a foul mouth at times. He even apparently spat at the boys at one point, but he didn't appear hostile,

telling them that he just wanted to make them laugh. They then played the penny game, a regular exercise that James would get many visitors to do. They would flip a coin on the porch and the voice of Jeff would tell them which way the coin had landed. The voice got it right every time. Even when they tried to trick it by not actually flipping the coin, it called them out on their deceit. None of the Irvings were close enough to be able to see the coin from where the boys were. But this strange trick left an uneasy question in the air. Was Jeff's eyesight so good that he could see the coin?

from one of the holes in the wooden panelling, or was he able to read minds? Jeff's ability to know what was going on in other places was well recorded at this point. Margaret would be inside the house and Jeff's voice would inform her exactly what animals her husband was working on at that moment, what he was doing, when he was coming back. He brought the family gossip from the local area, telling them things that he should have no way of describing the insides of homes the family had never visited, but they would later find would match. Although it seemed this wasn't always through some ability to see things that were happening in other places, but instead literally visiting others and eavesdropping on conversations.

At times, Jeff would fall ill, with the Irvings finding pools of vomit under their bed. He would catch colds, filling the walls with a rattling cough, one time even yelling out, out. Jim, I have a goddamn cough. I have a hell of a cough. You will need to give me something. Using the word hell when devil often was something Jeff was fond of saying, as well as screeching vanished when he would go away, and one of his favourite phrases to say was nuts, as well as a slew of different insult that he loved to throw around. Vori was quite the skilled rabbit hunter apparently, and would often take her dog Mona out, using her as a pointer to distract a rabbit, so she could come up behind it and club it with a stick.

Jeff apparently took it upon himself to help. He began bringing the Irving's dead rabbits. It would be easy to say that these were actually being killed by Vory, but Jeff's method of killing was different. The animals would be found with their eyes bulging, but not a scratch on them, suggesting that Jeff was strangling the creatures. Jeff would bring so many into the home that the family actually managed to turn it into a secondary source of income, selling the rabbits that Jeff would kill.

However, Jeff soon realized the value he was bringing in, and if he was in a bad mood or didn't get his way, he would threaten to go on strike. Jeff continued to be fiercely protective of O'Re in his early days. Her family's reputation was not doing a very way. her popularity any good. The phrase spook began to refer not just to the phenomena taking place in their home, but was also used as a nickname for the at-time strange and shy girl. When she was headed to the bus stop one day, a group of other children saw her coming and began to mock her. Vori wasn't close enough to hear them, but apparently Jeff was. They began to be pelted by rocks

by an invisible force. Rumors continued that Vori was somehow responsible for faking Jeff, a fact that Jeff himself was not happy with. He once overheard a neighbouring farmer, talking about how the girl was responsible for the spook. Jeff informed the Irvings later of what he had heard and started yelling that he would kill the farmer's turkeys. Apparently shortly after this, sure enough,

all of the farmer's ducks and dogs and... turkeys vanished, no trace of them was ever found. This was a good example of the two sides of Jeff's personality. He could be a fun and playful entity, telling jokes, playing games, singing songs, and even at times could be heard dancing in his sanctum, but at other times it appeared the mask slipped, and a much angrier presence made itself known, much as it had done in those first six months. He would say things to the family like, I could kill you all if I liked, but I won't. He regularly liked to threaten livestock, saying that if the Irvings were kind to him, he would bring them good luck. If not, he would kill all their poultry. He also would ask if the family

had any enemies on the other farms. If they did, he said he would kill their lambs for them. One moment Jeff would berate the family with insults. The next, he would declare that he was shy and timid. It was almost like Jeff was made up of more than one personality. The local bus drivers at the nearby station were a particular target of Jeff's nosy ways. Jeff would often reveal discussions they had and even apparently told one driver about the exact jumper. His wife was knitting back at their home. They became so enraged by Jeff that they'd be so outraged by Jeff that they'd be.

began setting traps for him, but with no luck. Other visitors to the home claimed that Jeff knew things about them that he should have no way of knowing, what they were reading, the rooms they were staying in, personal details that the Irving family should have no knowledge of. In February of 1932, Harry Price had received a letter from the Irving's neighbour, who told him all about Jeff. Price's health wasn't the best at this point, and he was busy with another case so he sent a man named Captain Harold Dennis to the island. Dennis was a former ambulance driver for the Red Cross during the war. He also had a keen interest in zoology and actually owned a number of exotic animals. Side note here, he actually offered to bring a mongoose to the island to meet

Jeff. Jeff apparently did not like this idea and said he would kill it. Price described Captain Dennis as a well-known racing motorist and businessman who was very sure. shrewd and not easily hoodwinked. Dennis would make free trips to the island to meet the Irvings and Jeff, with mixed results. He arrived early one evening and was welcomed in by the family. They set about telling him the whole story and began showing him the cracks in the walls that they believed Jeff traveled through. After several hours, Jeff had failed to show up, and Dennis had decided to leave for the night. As soon as he stepped out of the door, as was often the case with visitors,

Jeff made himself known. Dennis heard a shrill voice saying, Go away, who is that man? James Irving announced that it was Jeff talking. The voice continued, but Dennis said he struggled to understand it. This was actually a common complaint of many who heard Jeff. They would catch odd words or sentences, but at times it just seemed to devolve into a high-pitched squeaking.

But James, who was much more used to hear, hearing Jeff's voice, was able to translate his words a lot easier. As soon as Dennis re-entered the home, the voice stopped again. When Dennis returned the following morning, he was met by James, who said that Jeff had been very talkative that morning. He had apparently agreed to talk with a man, as long as he could provide a gift to worry. Apparently, he requested either a camera or a gramophone. Jeff had also said that he'd been watching Dennis the night before, and didn't like him. Jeff's reason for this was that Dennis did not believe in him.

Jeff was always reluctant to provide any evidence of his existence, but if he felt that someone didn't believe in him, he became irritated, another of the many contradictions of Jeff the talking mongoose. Dennis had been unconvinced by the voice initially, but he was a little more perplexed when later that afternoon he had been sat with the Irvings at the kitchen table, having a cup of tea, when a needle appeared to fly out from behind him. The only thing that had been behind Dennis was a wall, but there was a small hole in it that it appears the needle could have come from.

It seemed Jeff had decided to throw something out at him. In the hours that followed he heard scurrying and strange sounds that he could find no trace for. Then by another hole he found a puddle of liquid that James claimed was likely Jeff's pee. Later that evening, Vori and a mother went upstairs to see if they could get Jeff to talk. Sure enough, the voice was heard downstairs by Dennis. The voice yet again informed him that he did not like him,

and if he tried to creep towards the stairs, no matter how quiet he was, Jeff would screech that the man was coming. Again, with two of the family out of eyesight, Dennis didn't find this too convincing. Dennis reported back to Price that he felt that James Irving was a trustworthy one. witness, but he was more suspicious of the two women in the house. Many have pointed out similarities to the Jeff case, and that of a traditional poltergeist case, particularly due to the presence of a teenage girl at the centre of it all. But unlike most poltergeist incidents that seem to be short-lived, but very intense affairs, Jeff stuck around for years. In fact, it wouldn't be until

1935 that Captain Dennis would return. James had come down to meet Dennis at the Waterfall Inn in the nearby village, where they had lunch and walked along the beach. During their conversation, Dennis made a curious comment, saying he felt like Jeff was with them. James explained that this wasn't unlikely. Jeff had been known to follow James four miles some days when he would visit the town appeal. Captain Dennis picked a flower that he put in the bar, carton hole of his jacket, and they began the walk towards the farm. As soon as they entered, Margaret told them that Jeff had been with them. He knew that they had beer with lunch.

He had revealed details about their conversation on the beach, and even apparently saw Dennis picked the flower. This was infinitely more interesting to Dennis than anything he had experienced on his first visit. There was no way James could have gotten this information back to his wife before their arrival. he considered the idea that maybe someone had been watching them, but he couldn't think of any space on the beach someone could have hid and still being close enough to hear. The more out-the-firy that didn't involve Jeff

was the idea that Margaret could have some kind of psychic ability, a theory that was suggested by a few over the years. Jeff was quiet at first, but when Vori left the house to go out into the farm yard, he spoke. Dennis, still suspicious the girl could be responsible, rushed to the window. But he could see her outside, far away. That night as he walked down the path, he heard Jeff again. No one other than James was close to him and Irving was in full view. Dennis wasn't sure what was going on here,

but he was definitely more intrigued than he had been on his visit three years before. This was enough to coax Harry Price to head to the farm himself. Just a couple of months after Dennis's visit, he arranged a trip with his associate, Richard Lambert, a man of higher social stature than Price, and a fellow member of what would become known as the British Film Institute. His insistence on bringing Lambert, as well as his involvement of others in this case, seemed to suggest that Price was taking this somewhat seriously, although he was headed to Dawlishkeshen, firmly with a sceptical view of the whole thing.

something that was likely increased by the fur sample he had received. Price had requested the family sent him a sample of Jeff's fur. Apparently the family had left Jeff a pair of scissors in his sanctum and asked him to trim some. Jeff told them to go and look and sure enough, there sat on the side, was a clump of fur. But when they sent this to Price, Price was frustrated to discover that it appeared to be dog fur.

while it seemed unlikely they believed this would not be discovered when testing, their version of how they received the fur does leave open the window that Jeff, in his traditionally mischievous ways, had simply snipped the fur from the family's dog mona. Jeff was apparently also not frilled about the idea of Price visiting. He explained he had come to like Captain Dennis, but he was wary of Harry Price, saying he didn't like him, that he would put his story. in the papers, something that Jeff had expressed time and time again about others involved in the media. He didn't trust them and didn't want them to share his story. In fact, prior to their arrival,

Jeff apparently went missing for several days. Lambert and Price arrived on the 30th of July in 1935. Irving had seemingly rented a car to pick up the men, apparently wanting to make a good impression on them. When they arrived at the farm, they provided the family with a camera, asking them to use it to try and get photos of Jeff in the future. Price would later receive these after a lot of back and forth and he wasn't particularly impressed by their attempts to photograph Jeff. The two men initially began talking to Vori and Margaret about the whole escapade. Margaret pretty much backed up everything they already knew, but Vori, now 17, was much quieter. Many have noted that James Irving generally took over any conversation, especially when it came to Jeff.

He was a friendly but at times overbearing presence, which could be frustrating when investigators were trying to get the full story. Their first night was a frustrating one, Jeff, who had been silent for a while at this point, remained so during their visit. Price and Lambert made note that the Irving seemed embarrassed that the men had travelled so far but that Jeff was not interested in entertaining them. They kept attempting to coax him to speak, but with no luck. the two men left around midnight. While they had seen nothing to convince them, they were slightly more convinced by the Irvings, having met them in person.

It seemed unbelievable to them that they would keep this story up for so many years at this point if there wasn't at least some foundation of truth to it. Price seemed very interested in the theory that Vori was the centre of this whole thing. The next day he asked to take her out for the day so they could speak to her away from her family. Vori agreed, but James did not, insisting he come along.

Yet again James dominated the conversation, make him for another frustrating day for the investigators. They left the island with nothing to show for their visit. At a later date, Price again requested by a letter that Vori could come to London to be interviewed and have some tests run at his laboratory. But James was apparently incensed by this, and did not like the idea of his teenage daughter being alone with either of these men, refusing to let her even speak to them without him. He said he could come to London in her place, but that she would not leave the island.

They noted the strange upbringing the girl had, having never left the island, and spending the majority of her time alone with her much older parents. she had become a quiet and very reserved girl, and the pair could see how lonely she seemed to be. Price and Lambert's trip to Dawlishkeshens had been a wasted one. The only interesting detail Price was able to gather from being there himself was his assertion that the wooden panelling that lined the inside of the house seemed to create a kind of acoustic boost to sounds, allowing a voice to be heard in other parts of the house with ease, seemingly suggesting that it would be possible for someone to speak into a hole elsewhere in the house

and for it to be heard, clear as day, in another room. However, a lack of any real evidence or testing is available for this theory. Shortly after, Price sent another associate of his to Dawlishkesheng. She pretended not to know Price, but still Jeff wouldn't make a sound when she was present. apparently after leaving Jeff did finally talk Margaret who in particular would get angry at Jeff when he refused to speak asked why he hadn't spoken for their guest to which he replied that he thought she might be a newspaper woman

in October of that year Captain Dennis would return for one final visit when he arrived he was told Jeff had gone to the waterfall inn to see Dennis arrive in town but had not returned At around 9.30pm all the geese on the farm started clucking, announcing that Jeff was back. Still, Jeff didn't speak though. Vori went to bed at around 11pm and shortly after they began to hear tapping on the walls. Of course, Dennis was suspicious this could be Worry. They pushed Jeff to talk but were met with more at times quite violent banging.

He then heard what sounded like a lot of. a loud bang on one of the bedroom doors upstairs, followed by Jeff finally speaking, telling Dennis to go and look. He went upstairs to find the fastening on the door had locked for he in. There was no way to lock it from the inside. Something Jeff often liked to do to the girl for some reason. They unlocked the door to find her laying in bed. While in the room, they could hear something scurrying around above their heads. And then for the next 15, in minutes. Jeff wouldn't shut up. Banging sounds were heard from all different places in the house. High-pitched screams reigned through the walls. And at one point even a metal chain was

thrown to the floor in Vori's bedroom. Jeff then became more chatty, directly interacting with Dennis and the Irvings. When Dennis asked him to hear one of his trademark sinister laughs, the voice obliged. It chilled, Dennis to the bone to hear it. When Dennis asked him to come closer, he heard a voice say, Hello everybody. Another of his common phrases. The voice sounded like it had come from inside the kitchen this time. On occasion, Dennis would randomly run out into the hall to the stairs with his lantern to try and catch Jeff or whoever was making the sounds in the act. But each time no one would be there, and Jeff would get annoyed, calling Dennis.

a damned sleech for trying to see him. Jeff would often berate people who try to look at him without permission, including the family. At one point, Dennis was sure he heard the voice coming from the wooden panelling, behind where Margaret was sitting, add into the common theory that the voices were coming from inside the walls. The conversations continued until three in the morning. When Jeff ended it with a slightly sinister threat, that he would throw a brick at Dennis when slept. Jeff didn't, but at 7am, Captain Dennis was awoken by Jeff's voice, shouting,

get up, Dennis. Dennis returned to England but kept up correspondence with the Irvings for years to follow. He was now a firm believer in Jeff, but still had no understanding of what Jeff was. Price continued to correspond with James, though, and eventually Price and Lambert published a book on the case, called the haunting of Cachan's Gap. Price had been suspicious of the Irving's possible interest in using the Jeff story for monetary gain. Seemingly, they had been hesitant to do so early on, but as the years had progressed,

the family had fallen on harder and harder times. James was keen to share in any profits the book would make, while Price agreed if the book made enough to pay back the publishers. He would then split the profits three ways, but he said this was unlikely. He said most of the book. most of his published works didn't really make any money, and that this was purely being published as an academic work. Sure enough, it didn't. What it did lead to, though, was a court case

involving Jeff the talking Mungoose. Widely reported in the press at the time that Mungoose case was presented to the High Court of Justice in November of 1936. Lambert had been a target of much mockery from his colleagues, particularly those on the board of the British Film Institute, who claimed that Lambert was not fit to hold a place on the board anymore, due to his interest in occult matters, an apparent belief in a talking mongoose. Various days in court were spent debating Jeff, including one long-winded section where the judge debated what the plural of mongoose was.

Apparent photos that the Irvings had taken of Jeff, which were not particularly convincing, were held up in court as part of the case. we've much debated over which shape was supposed to be the fabled mongoose. The entire thing made Jeff even more famous and was seen as a hilariously bizarre piece of British legal history. Lambert actually ended up receiving £7,500 in libel damages, seemingly making him the only person to actually make any money out of the tale of Jeff. As the years progressed, Jeff was heard from less and less. Bori in particular seemed to distance herself from him,

and the once inseparable pair's relationship was ruined. Bory even going as far to say she hated Jeff, and that she wished he had never come into their lives. He had made her seem like a freak in the eyes of many, but she still would never deny his existence. Jeff's relationship with Margaret and James, though, was still strong. He began to see Margaret as a mother figure apparently, and as he drifted away from Vori, he became more and more attached to James.

But this didn't stop his appearance from becoming less and less common. Various spiritualists would visit over the years. Some claimed to interact with Jeff. Many others did not. Jeff was becoming more selective over who he would speak to. There would be one final notable visitor to Dorlish Kishcheno. While Harry Price is the name most associated with the case, it was actually the Hungarian psychoanalyst, lawyer, journalist, and paranormal investigator, Nandor Fodor, who spent the longest time at the farm.

Apparently the 1930s were a time that you could have a wide variety of professions for one man. Fodor had apparently been following the story closely since it first appeared in the press in 1931. But it wouldn't be until 1937, that he would travel to the island in search of Jeff after publishing an article and the idea of animal spirit the year prior. Upon meeting the family, Fodor believed that Margaret Irving could be the type

to be a so-called psychic. Margaret herself apparently believed she had some sort of ability. And interestingly, this is a thought that many who met her had throughout the years. Even Jeff himself would apparently at times refer to her as Maggie the witch. However, during Fodor's entire week-long stay, he never actually had a direct encounter with Jeff. The closest he came was apparently one night while using the outside toilet. He heard something thrown at the roof.

He asked out loud if this was Jeff making the noise, but wasn't greeted with the strange creature's voice. Despite this, Fodor was able to interview the family at length, as well as a huge number of locals who claimed to have witnessed some of the activity at the farm. including a postman who had heard Jeff's foul-mouthed rants, the boys Harry and Will, who believed they had seen and heard Jeff, a bus mechanic who Jeff had apparently been spying on in his home, and a bus conductor who was regularly having his sandwiches stolen by Jeff. Interestingly, Fodor's initial takeaway was similar to James' first false. He said,

Jeff is not a poltergeist, he is not an earthbound spirit, and he is not a ghost. Despite Jeff's apparent abilities to change his appearance, feats of strength, ability to talk, and even the power of invisibility, Fodor was more drawn to the examples where Jeff would spit, urinate, cough and eat, saying that the mystery was not a psychic one, but that Jeff was simply an extra-clever little mongoose. However, Fodor's theory on this would change years later, in a rather strange,

quote, he said, I was not yet equipped with adequate psychoanalytical knowledge to conduct an exploration of James Irving's unconscious. His dream life, I am confident, would have given sorely needed clues to understand the intellectual development of Jeff and to find the storehouse of his power. It seemed Fodor went on to believe that Jeff was some kind of psychological projection from James Irving, a man bored and lonely, living in abject poverty, starved of mental stimulation, with only a handful of books as his only entertainment, that James Irving had in fact made up Jeff, unknowingly, but in doing so had created something very real, nonetheless. One note that seems to connect to this is that in later years, Jeff was apparently heard begging James

to let him go, suggesting the man was somehow responsible for his presence. In 1940, Vori finally left a farm. Now an adult and employed, she would return once a week to see her parents but was now living her own life, away from Jeff and their remote world. In In 1942, a newspaper report popped up, saying the Dalby Spook was once again active, although there appears to be little information on what exactly this incident was. Around 1944, James Irving fell very ill. By this point, Geoff had not been seen or heard from in quite some time, it seemed. The family's eldest daughter, Elsie, who had been living in Liverpool, returned to the

farm to be with her father in his final days. Elsie had never believed in the crazy stories about Jeff, the fact that, according to the family, made Jeff take quite a disliking to her. But she admitted, in the six months that she stayed in the farm caring for her father, she would hear strange noises, sounds that seemed to get louder whenever Vori would stay. James died at 4.10 a.m. on the 6th of August, 1945 at the age of 72. The moment he passed, Margaret and Elsie had been sitting by the fireplace. Neither one of them could believe it, when they saw a brush that was placed on top of the fireplace, start to move back and forth on its own accord, as though someone were brushing the mantle.

As James breath, the brush stopped. Margaret believed this was Jeff, making one last visit to say goodbye to his old friend. After his death, Margaret had no interest in staying in Dorlishkeshens any longer. It appears James had been right about his assertion that the whole Jeff story was actually having a negative impact on their finances due to the value of the property. The farm sold at auction for just £140, less than half of what the Irvings are paid for it. The auctioneer joking that the Dalby Spook would be thrown in for free. and Mr Robert Cubborn purchased the farm, a local retired farmer,

who announced that he did not believe in Jeff at all. Strangely, he sold the property again just a few months later, never revealing why he had decided against owning Dorishkeshen. The farm was then purchased by a man named Leslie Graham, who set out to improve the farm, spending a considerable amount doing so. In 1947, Jeff was again in the news. The picture of Leslie Graham holding what appeared to be a dead pole cat adorned the front page. Apparently he had seen the creature on his property late one night.

He had attempted to capture it, but when the animal attacked him, he had killed it. The media claimed that the man had in fact killed Jeff the talking mongoose. Although he didn't match the more commonly used descriptions of Jeff, and the remaining Irvings did not believe that it was him. Graham claimed that at times he would see Margaret and Vori in the local area up until the time that Margaret passed away. He said neither one of them would ever talk about Jeff anymore. It seemed they wanted to put the whole thing behind them. In 1971, the farmhouse was demolished.

Although some buildings of the farm remained, the actual house was destroyed, but no one seems to know why. Dahlishkeshen is now increasingly hard to find on the island. but that still doesn't stop people trying to track the place down, in the hopes of getting to see Jeff for themselves. Every few years the story of Jeff gains some level of notoriety again, and for understandable reasons, it's such a strange little tale, and inevitably when it does, people would reach out to Vori to talk about her experiences as a child at Doriskeshens. But time and time again she would refuse. Even when decent sums and money were offered, she would turn it down.

She had spent a good chunk of her adolescent life being called the spook by others on the island, treated as a strange person to be avoided. Moving away was her chance to start afresh, to put the whole Jeffing behind her. In 1996, filmmaker Brian Catling reached out to Vori after finding out she was now living in Cheltenham. She again refused. saying she had left all that behind her. She was now 78 and didn't love the idea that the people who were in her life now would hear all about her strange experience.

The only time that Vori seemed to talk about the case was in a single interview in 1970. The interviewer asked her what's happened to Jeff, and she stated that he seemed to disappear in the late 1930s, going missing for longer and longer periods until he just didn't show up anymore. It stated that Vori now hated Jeff, that Wiley had been a great friend to her early on. She was a shy girl and the constant attention brought people to her home. She didn't want that. She didn't want to be constantly bombarded with questions from strangers.

On the rumours that she was a ventriloquist and that she was somehow responsible for the voice, Vory simply pointed out that if she was that talented eventualiquist, then she would have surely made a successful career out of that, rather than the modest life that she was now living. The only money the Irving's ever made from the story was five-pound boarding from Nandor Fodor, and an occasional guinea for pictures to the newspaper. She said Jeff was detrimental to her life.

She was bullied. She even believed Jeff kept her from getting married because she couldn't imagine explaining this part of her life to a possible husband. She said she didn't know if he was actually a mongoose, but he was a small animal, about nine inches long, and would talk to them from the wainscotting in their home, with a high-pitched voice and often expletive-filled sentences. She didn't think it merely imitated their voices as it carried on full-blown conversations

with the family. The reporter asked her, flat out, if the story was a hoax. Her reply was, it was not a hoax, and I wish it had never happened. If my mother and I had our way, we would never have told anybody about it. But Farval was sort of wrapped up in it. It was such a wonderful phenomenon that he just had to tell people about it. The reporter ended his time with Vori that day, pointing out that many newspapers would pay her a large sum to confess the true story

of what's happened in that farm. But she refused this idea. Despite being in a somewhat poor financial situation herself, The reporter stated that despite how crazy the story was, he believed her. It seemed to be very much the case that Vori, 30 years later, still believed in Jeff, the talking mongoose. So what really happened? This is normally the part of an episode where I talk about the various theories surrounding a case, some that lean towards paranormal explanations, others that may point to a hoax.

natural occurrences. But where do you start with this one? To begin with, there is virtually no recorded evidence of the existence of Jeff, whatever he was. All that exists are a series of very unconvincing photographs, some of which don't appear to show anything at all. Others are what almost appears to be an outer focus hat. The reason we know so much about this case is due to the work of the various investigators that visited, who interviewed the family and other witnesses, as well as the letters and diaries of James Irving, which give a very in-depth insight to the activities of Jeff. This is commonly referred to as a hoax these days, and that evaluation is completely understandable when you look at the story. But it's worth pointing out there is no concrete

evidence for this either. Some more recent articles I read state that Vori was caught faking Jeff's noises, but I'm not sure where this information has come from. It wasn't present in anything I directly read. There are certainly many times where she could be responsible, but I don't believe she was ever caught red-handed. Many who have a passing knowledge of this case seem to point to the fact that Vory was a skilled ventriloquist. Again, I'm not really sure where this theory came from initially, but it seems to be presented as a fact in more recent coverage of this case. The claims of Vori being a natural ventriloquist, seemed to stem from the original newspaper report in early 1932, although the writer there seems to imply this is just a theory, not something he has evidence for.

Some investigators who spoke to students at Vori's school also back up this claim, that she was able to throw her voice, but others refute this, saying they never heard or saw her doing anything like this. Of course, Vori also refutes this in later years. While it's certainly a possible explanation, it doesn't seem to have been possible for every instance of Jeff talking, unless those accounts were false, and it seems to be a theory that has snowballed into being presented as fact. Another suggested idea is that James was actually the victim of the hoax. Numerous investigators stated that they believed that James was a true believer in Jeff, but were more suspicious of the two girls, a rumor that has existed since early on in the case. is that Margaret and Vori hated living on the farm and resented James for moving them there. They then came up with a haunted house hoax to try and scare him back, but it didn't work.

Again, there are issues with this theory. If this was the case, why would they continue it on for years if James wasn't disturbed by Jeff? And why make the figure of Jeff become a fun and playful character to be around? There is also the point that James makes time and time again that the report, of Jeff were making it impossible to sell the farm, which brings us onto the topic of money. Now every time I talk about a paranormal case, there will be comments saying that the people involved are just after money. I admit I have a tendency to roll my eyes at these comments. The amount of people who have made any sort of significant money off a reported haunted house is so

tiny, in comparison to the people who are instead ridiculed and end up causing genuine damage to their lives for going public with such wild claims. However, that doesn't mean there aren't examples of people at least trying this bizarrely risky get-rich-quick scheme. And it's hard not to consider it here. Harry Price at the very least was suspicious that James Irving was very interested in making money from the Jeff story. The Irvings were not well off by any stretch of the imagination and the idea that they may have missed their more financially stable life in Liverpool can't be denied. Although, when they realised the chances of making a profit on their property was dwindling and the discovery that there wasn't any money to be made off of book sales, for this case,

you have to wonder why they would stick to it for so long. Ultimately, James Irving passed away, a poor man, on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and the family lost a considerable amount of money just to get rid of the place after he passed. Was Jeff simply a joke that they took too far? A fantastical figure that the family had conjured up one bored night on the farm. A way for the Irvings to entertain their daughter, with tall tales of a talking weasel. Maybe they worked out ways to make sound travel around the house easily, much as Price had suggested. Maybe Vori could throw her voice.

Maybe other members of the family could. It's not hard to notice. that Jeff seems to share a lot of the family's interests and personality traits at times. Together they concocted this prank just for the devilment of it, as Jeff would say. And maybe James Irving got carried away, trying to see how far he could push this story, how many people he could fall, just for attention, or maybe to brighten up what could be a very dull life on the farm. To me, this feels the most likely. but I can't shake Vori's later life from all of this.

She seems to genuinely feel that Jeff had been a hugely negative impact on her life, that it is a part of her life that she wanted to ignore, that she didn't want people to keep asking about it. But if that were the case, why once she left the farm, or certainly after her parents passed, could she have just not told the truth? No one had made any significant money from Jeff. there was nothing to gain from keeping the story alive if she despised it so much.

She could have told her side, likely made a bit of cash for the interview, and then she could have moved on with her life, never thinking about Jeff again. But she didn't. She refused to talk about him, and when she finally did cave some 30 years later, she gave one single interview where she doubled down on it being true and then went silent again. So many people came to Dawlishkeshens over the years, hearing this ridiculous story. So many came specifically to disprove it, to see what nonsense this family were conjuring up. But so many left as believers.

If not convinced that Jeff existed, at least convinced that the family genuinely believed that Jeff existed. But not one of them could come to a conclusive view. of what Jeff could be. So let's get into some more out-there theories. Jeff is a ghost, a poltergeist, or some kind of other spirit. A lot of the phenomena involved with Jeff is quite different to what we expect to hear in a haunted house story. But I couldn't help but notice similarities to many much older paranormal cases. Most famously, the tale of the bell witch features several connections,

not least of which is the mysterious voice that filled the family's home this is also present in another muchholder case that took place at wizard clip a topic i have already covered on the show the more i read the more it brought these cases to mind much like jeff many cases of hauntings are said to start with wrappings gentle taps on the wall that grow louder and more violent the more they are paid attention to Animal apparitions have also been reported in many paranormal cases over the centuries. In more than one occasion, entities have apparently been referred to, by the name of Jeff too, such as in the Willington Mill Paltagice case.

There is also the connection I previously mentioned of a young girl being at the center of the activity, a common trait of many Paltgeist cases. There are those who believe a Paltgeist isn't a spirit at all. Instead, it is some sort of undiscovered psychic energy. that people are capable of producing, often unconsciously. They don't have any control over it and have no idea they are the cause, but they are. This is often suspected as most likely happening during puberty. If Vori had been the cause of Jeff,

then maybe it makes sense that his appearance became less frequent as she grew tired of her little companion, before eventually disappearing completely when she left the farm. Along the lines of the human mind being responsible for such a phenomenon, there is of course Nandor Fodor's suggestion, that it was in fact James who created Jeff, that somehow Jeff was a physical manifestation of a bored and frustrated mind, or another view along the same lines is that Jeff could be a topa,

an entity created simply because the Irvings did really believe in him. This is an interesting line of thought to get lost in, when you recall how many times Jeff grew angry, when people did not believe in him. Maybe that very belief is what he needed to exist. Then there are ideas that are more based in folklore. Of course, the obvious comparison is to a witch is familiar, a theme that seemed to be brought up by many who investigated the case. There are also plenty of creatures in British folklore that resemble elements of the Jeff story,

many of which are variations on the idea of the fairy or the fay the isle of man by itself has many tales of tricky mischievous creatures toying with people but also being helpful when treated well by the locals these are often seen as trickster-like entities a name used for a few different concepts within the paranormal but normally used to refer to a being whose purpose is to confuse to frustrate and to disrupt our ordinary way of life, much like Jeff had done to the Irving family. If Jeff were literally real or not, feels almost redundant by this point. The more interesting question I'd argue was if he was real to all those people who came to Dorlish Kashen. Was he the work of bored minds, a supernatural entity, or was he in fact just an extra special mongoose? We will never know for certain. And part of me is glad for that fact. The world is just that little bit more magical,

knowing that Jeff was a part of it. Whatever he may have been. That's all for this entry into the tape library. I'm not sure how long this episode will end up being, but at the time of writing this, I've spent the better part of a week, manically writing over 13,000 words on the tail of a talking mongoose. It has made me question my sanity at times,

and has certainly made me ask one or two questions about my life choices. But I'm genuinely so glad I finally got round to this one. It feels almost like a fever dream at this point. Jeff is one of those stories I've had on my list since the show pretty much started, but I kept putting it off because I really wanted to make sure I did it right. So I hope I've done the story of this extra special mongoose justice. I know this is a really odd one, and I'm sure a lot of people will have checked out a while ago.

But if you came along for the ride, then thank you. I stand by my belief that this is one of the most entertaining and unique pieces of 40 and history to ever exist. Price and Lambert's book is a very rare find due to how few were published. But if you want to dig deeper into this, I can't recommend Christopher Josephie's book, Jeff, enough. I used a variety of sources for this, but in hindsight that was pointless. I found myself coming back to this book to confirm pretty much every. detail. At close to 400 pages, it's a big commitment, but it has every single detail you could ever hope to learn about this case. I'm not sponsored by the book at all, but I genuinely think it is

one of the best books I have read on paranormal cases since I started doing this. Really can't recommend it enough. I'm going to go and collapse into my own sanctum now and hibernate for a while. Hopefully all those dreams of Jeff will stop soon. But if you enjoyed this mammophephypiping, episode, then please do click like and subscribe if you haven't already. Before I go, there's just time to thank the wonderful supporters over on Patreon and YouTube memberships, whose generosity keeps the channel ticking along. So it's time for those shoutouts. Our tape library archivist, Sumico Grimm, Sandy Lusk, Restock 1731, Mirror, Judith Hacker,

Gabrielle, Eric Salas, Destiny M, Ashlaas Books, Deigo, No Doerleg, I'm sure I still got that wrong. Dirtnaps, 69, Lady Bet Noir, Adeline, Peter McCann, Jolly, Crimson DM, Georgia Harvey, Calliago, Donic DiAngelois, Dean J. Daly, Simon Ullas, Jay, Joe, Calicott, Dala, G-Raw, Midia Zabine, Montana Martin, Packer,

Sirius Wack, The Detective, M.E. Bartley, Alfredo Sandoval and Tucker RVB. The lead archivist, Van Yell, Brian Baker, old soul like mine, Lord William,

Tracy Toello, Savi A Wrangle, Tyler Michael, Ridiculous, 1,000th Ghost, London Grace, Melissa Harrinson, creepy candy, Ben Clark,

Plague Doctor Is In, Alex O'Neill and Alex Goldberg, and our extremely generous grand overseers, Morning Rain 2619, Katie, Agent 355 and Badiddle. Thank you all for your continued support. It will be back very soon, and in fact all being well, I might be bringing a friend along with me for the next one. Until next time, my friends. Pleasant dreams.