NYPD officer arrested in cannibal plot allegedly used police database to track women he planned to rape, cook and eat

Basil Katz, Reuters | Oct 25, 2012 8:17 PM ET | Last Updated: Oct 26, 2012 9:37 AM ET
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Read the criminal complaint against Gilberto Valle III

NEW YORK — A New York City police officer was charged on Thursday with conspiring to kidnap, torture, cook and eat women whose names he listed in his computer.

In a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court, Gilberto Valle III, 28, of Forest Hills, Queens, was charged with conspiring to cross state lines to kidnap the women and with illegally accessing a federal database — which he allegedly used to run surveillance on possible victims.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg    Gilberto Valle III, 28, with his attorney Julia Gatto, centre, when he pleaded not guilty to criminal charges before Judge Henry Pitman in New York Thursday.

Investigators uncovered a file on Valle’s computer containing the names and pictures of at least 100 women, and the addresses and physical descriptions of some of them, according to the complaint. It said he had undertaken surveillance of some of the women at their places of employment and their homes.

Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman, in denying Valle bail at a hearing on Thursday evening, said: “the allegations in the complaint are profoundly disturbing. I have never seen allegations similar to this in 16 years on the bench.”

Excerpt from Valle’s online conversation, which appears in the criminal complaint:
CC-l: How big is your oven?
* * *
VALLE: Big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs…. The abduction will have to be flawless. I know all of them.
["Victim-I"], I can just show up at her home unannounced, it will not alert her, and I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her home.
CC-l: You really would be better to grab a stranger. The first thing the police force will do is check out a friend.
VALLE: Her family is out of state.
CC-l: I have anaesthetic gasses.
VALLE: I can make chloroform here.

Valle’s court-appointed attorney, Julia Gatto, had vigorously argued to the judge that her client, a 6-1/2 year NYPD veteran who appeared before the judge in a red T-shirt and jeans, was all talk and deserved to be released on bail.

“The best this complaint alleges is talk, just idle talk,” Gatto said. “There is no actual crossing the line from fantasy to reality, your honour.”

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II    A man claiming to be the brother of New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle is questioned by the media Thursday in the Queens borough of New York.

 

In an excerpt of a July online conversation with an unnamed co-conspirator, Valle is quoted in the complaint as saying:

“I can just show up at her home unannounced. It will not alert her, and I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her home.”

“I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus … cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,” he said. The woman in question is identified only as “Victim 1.”

Excerpt from Valle’s online conversation, which appears in the criminal complaint:
VALLE: I love that she is asleep right now not having the slightest clue of what we have planned. Her days are numbered.
I’m glad you’re on board. She does look tasty doesn’t she?
CC-l: You do know if we don’t waste any of her there is nearly 75 lbs of food there.

A Manhattan federal prosecutor, Hadassa Waxman, told the judge on Thursday that Valle was as “close as he could possibly come,” short of “kidnapping a woman, drugging her, cooking her and actually eating her.”

Federal prosecutors, in announcing the charges, said Valle had created a document called “Abducting and Cooking : A Blueprint.” Valle also told an unnamed co-conspirator he would kidnap another woman for $5,000, they said.

“Gilberto Valle’s alleged plans to kidnap women so that they could be raped, tortured, killed, cooked and cannibalized shock the conscience,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

“This case is all the more disturbing when you consider Valle’s position as a New York City police officer and his sworn duty to serve and protect. Our investigation is ongoing.”

He was titillated by it. It looks like he was having these fantasy conversations with people he’s talking to in foreign countries

Excerpt from Valle’s online conversation, which appears in the criminal complaint:
CC-l: It’s really hard to dislocate (lock) a jaw. Also, how would we put her over the fire, spitting kills the girl.
Have to put her into a kind of cage. What is your favorite cut of meat?
VALLE: I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus … cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible.

Valle, who an official said had no prior criminal record, was not charged with carrying out any of his suspected plans.

A law enforcement official involved in the investigation characterized Valle’s actions as an online “fantasy game.”

“He was titillated by it,” said the official, who is not authorized to discuss the case publicly. “It looks like he was having these fantasy conversations with people he’s talking to in foreign countries.”

Valle’s attorney, Gatto, agreed. “This was a fantasy, a sexually deviant world where people talk about unreal things,” she said.