What Was Gef the Talking Mongoose?
He Caused a Stir from Doarlish Cashen on Dalby Mountain, Isle of Man
Aug 8, 2008
Gef liked to pull pranks on James, Margaret and Voirrey Irving. He enjoyed spying on people, then relating what he saw. There was a $50,000 offer for Gef to tour the US, but he refused, saying he would be put in a bottle. His proudest moment was when there was a libel suit involving him as the central character.
Gef Makes Headlines
R. S. Lambert was the editor of the official BBC Publication, The Listener. He and Harry Price, psychical researcher, were among the first to investigate Gef. They co-authored a book about their experience, The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap. John Lavita, Lambert’s direct superior, read the book and concluded that Lambert was “mad” and was an ardent “Gef-ist.” Lavita denounced him to BBC officials. Soon after this, Lambert was fired. He sued Lavita for libel.
At the same time, a member of Parliament demanded the House of Commons make an inquiry into Gef’s existence. Someone challenged this, which led to heated debates. One report stated there was a fist fight in the House.
Lambert said his alleged belief in Gef’s existence caused Lavita to denounce him as being crazy which was the cause of his termination. The trial lasted for days and, after being showed considerable evidence, the Court awarded Lambert $35,000, a decent amount in the 1930s.
Gef was very proud of himself for causing a ruckus in the House of Commons and the lawsuit that the Gef-ist won.
What Was Gef?
Nandor Fodor, distinguished parapsychologist and psychoanalyst, investigated the case. He came to the following final conclusions.
- Not a poltergeist: Gef performed bodily functions that poltergeists don’t. He had three fingers and a thumb, so he could pick up items and, on one occasion, tug at Jim’s pants. Fodor sent Gef a book about poltergeists before he went to Doarlish Cashen. Gef said he wasn’t like poltergeists when Jim read the book to him.
- Not a Familiar: These acquire knowledge by “supernatural” means. Gef gained knowledge through the normal five senses.
- An animal? Gef drank, slept, ate, urinated and regurgitated. He talked in his sleep. He left tooth marks in food. He also caught colds. Fodor theorized that Gef was a mongoose or relative of that fauna family who learned to talk. Years before, a farmer imported mongooses to kill rabbits on his land. Fodor accepted what Gef said he was, an extra clever small mongoose.
Gef wasn’t a cryptid, like Bigfoot. There are multiple sightings of more than one of these creatures and there is no record of a talking cryptid.
Voirrey Speaks
In 1946, Leslie Graham, who owned the Irving farm, claimed he killed Gef. The slain animal was black and white and much larger than the talking mongoose. Voirrey was certain the animal wasn’t Gef.
Voirrey still detested Gef over 30 years after the last contact. The Irvings had to sell the farm at a loss when they felt they had to move because it had the reputation of being haunted. People snubbed them. Children called her “the Dalby Spook.”
Some people accused her of creating a hoax but Voirrey refused to talk about Gef to reporters although she could have made a lot of money from articles.
She said there was a small animal that did all of the things that were reported and she wished he had left them alone.
Related Article:
Sources:
Between Two Worlds, Nandor Fodor, (Paperback Library Inc., 1967)
Haunted People, Hereward Carrington and Nandor Fodor, (A Signet Mystic Book, 1951)
Psychic Pets & Spirit Animals, Connie Hill, ed. (Llewellyn Publications, 1997)
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