Salon.com > cannibalism

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.

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,"

Weird news: Lobsters are now eating each other

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:30:00 +0000

The increased number of crustaceans in Maine's water has resulted in the bigger lobsters feasting on smaller ones, according to researchers.

Reuters reports:

"We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant," said Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, who is supervising the research. "It's never been observed just out in the open like this," he said.

Maine's lobster catch rose to a record 104 million pounds (45 million kilograms) last year, compared with 23 million pounds in 1981. The 2012 catch is expected to shatter that record as overfishing and other factors have led to the collapse of populations of cod, halibut and other groundfish that feed on lobsters.

Warming waters in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change have also bolstered the population even as the same phenomenon has led to more disease and lower populations in Long Island Sound and southern New England, Wahle said.

Weird news: NYPD officer arrested for plans to kidnap, torture and eat women

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:35:00 +0000

The FBI has arrested NYPD officer Gilberto Valle, who according to a criminal complaint had plans to “kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat body parts” of several women. CBS reports:

Valle kept files on his computer about more than 100 women, containing a photo and address for each, according to the complaint. Valle allegedly researched methods of “disabling and drugging women, and agreeing with at least one other individual to kidnap a woman in exchange for a sum of money.”