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The “Cannibal Cop” debate

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When news broke this morning of the conviction of Gilberto Valle, the so-called Cannibal Cop, I didn't know what to think. Was this verdict a dangerous assault on fantasy or the prevention of a grisly crime? How can we tell the difference between disturbingly realistic role-play and actual criminal plotting? I went to some smart thinkers -- in the worlds of psychiatry, civil liberties and BDSM -- for clarity on the trial, but what I found was that there are no easy answers.

The facts are as follows: Valle engaged in elaborate conversations online with fellow fetishists about kidnapping and eating real-life women. The former NYPD officer unlawfully accessed a federal law enforcement database to research potential "victims" and did Web searches for everything from chloroform to human meat recipes. The prosecution claimed that he showed up on the street of one of the women he'd talked about kidnapping (although doubts were raised about the reliability of the evidence). But he never met with his online pals in person or committed the talked-about crimes, and the defense says Valle was engaging in make-believe.

Cannibal cop found guilty

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:30:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer was convicted Tuesday of charges he plotted to kidnap and cook women to dine on their "girl meat" — a macabre case that subjected jurors to often gory evidence and asked them to separate fantasy from reality.

The jury reached the verdict in federal court at the kidnapping conspiracy trial of Officer Gilberto Valle, a 28-year-old father with an admitted fetish for talking on the Internet about cannibalism.

Valle's lawyers at what the tabloids dubbed the "Cannibal Cop" trial chose not to hide what they called his "weird proclivities." But they insisted that he was just fantasizing and noted that none of the women were ever harmed.

Prosecutors countered that an analysis of Valle's computer found he was taking concrete steps to abduct his wife and at least five other women he knew. They said he looked up potential targets on a restricted law enforcement database, searched the Internet for how to knock someone out with chloroform, and showed up on the block of one woman after agreeing to kidnap her for $5,000 for a New Jersey man, now awaiting trial.

Where cannibal role-play lives

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:31:00 +0000

"The Cannibal Pot," "Rest In Peace," "Dead People in Suits and Dresses" -- these are just three of the hundreds of group names on DarkFetishNet.com (and those are the tamer ones, so read on at your own risk). Each fetish group hosts genre-specific message board discussions and photos -- in the cases above, mostly of women who appear to be dead, dying or being eaten. This is the site accused "Cannibal Cop" Gilberto Valle, whose trial began today, is reported to have used.

In case you've managed to so far miss the tabloid frenzy, some background: The 28-year-old former NYPD officer is accused of conspiring to kidnap women and wrongfully using the National Crime Information Center database to research potential victims. He's alleged to have used email and instant messages to discuss "plans to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat the body parts of a number of women," as well as collecting information on more than 100 women and meeting with or surveying potential "victims," according to court documents. Valle's lawyers are mounting a fantasy defense -- that he was merely engaging in elaborate role-play about deviant fantasies and never intended to realize them in real life.

Cannibal cop’s online contact boasted eating woman and child

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:50:00 +0000

Just when we thought initial reports about NYPD officer Gilberto Valle's depraved plans to cook and eat women could not get worse, enter Valle's online interlocutor.

According to court papers, filed in advance of Valle's February trial on charges that he planned to abduct, rape, torture, cook and eat women, one online contact with the screenname "Moody Blues" told Valle that he had previously eaten "a black woman and a white child."

Moodly Blues told Valle, 28, that he looked forward to eating a white woman with him and that he'd love to eat another child. "I also love roasting whole pelvises, mind you only did with the little one so far," Moody Blues wrote to the six-year NYPD veteran, who responded approvingly.

Federal prosecutors argue that the online chats with Moody Blues should be used as evidence at trial, according to the New York Post. Prosecutors wrote that the cyber conversations "are highly probative of Valle's state of mind and of the existence of an actual, and non-fantastical agreement between Valle and the co-conspirator to commit a kidnapping... Indeed , they are no more sensational, depraved and disturbing than the related portions of the conversations (which Valle concedes are admissible) about shoving a specific and identified woman into an oven, with her legs folded under her, or cooking her over an open fire, slowly, to prolong her suffering,"