NYPD officer Gilberto Valle arrested by FBI over failed plot to kidnap women and cook them
By Rocco Parascandola and Greg B. Smith (New York Daily News) EXCLUSIVE: First look inside apartment of alleged cannibal cop Gilberto Valle. The NYPD vet is accused of horrific plot of planning to cook unsuspecting women 'over a low heat.' 'I was thinking of tying her body on to some kind of apparatus, cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,' cops say Valle wrote in deranged on-line chat.
A Harlem cop plotted to kidnap, torture, cook and eat dozens of women — even going so far as to discuss the best way to slow-cook an adult in a series of disturbing on-line chats, the FBI charged Thursday.
The feds busted alleged cannibal cop Gilberto Valle, 28, after intercepting multiple internet discussions in which the 26th Precinct cop offered gory details about a nightmarish plan straight out of a horror flick.
The FBI and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau moved in after a tip from Valle’s estranged wife, a law enforcement source said.
“I was thinking of tying her body on to some kind of apparatus, cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,” Valle wrote during one particularly harrowing chat.
Authorities arrested him Wednesday at his Yellowstone Blvd. apartment and he was to be arraigned in Manhattan federal court Thursday.
A complaint filed by the feds describes Valle’s effort to target one unnamed woman in particular, but notes that he had the names and photos of dozens of others in his computer.
The clueless cop - six years on the force - had no idea that his chats with an unnamed co-conspirator would later be discovered by the FBI.
In one instant message chat, prosecutors said, Valle discussed a kidnapping with the partner: “I love that she’s asleep right now not having the slightest clue of what we have planned. Her days are numbered. I’m glad you’re on board.”
He added, “She does look tasty, doesn’t she?”
Over the summer, the bizarre dialogue grew more sordid.
“You do know if we don’t waste any of her, there is nearly 75 pounds of food there,” the co-conspirator wrote.
FBI Acting Assistant Director Mary E. Galligan said the statements “speak for themselves.”
“The allegations in the complaint really need no description from us,” Galligan said in a statement issued Thursday. “It would be an understatement merely to say Valle’s own words and actions were shocking.”
Perhaps most disturbing was the charge that in May that Valle tapped into a federal database to get information on one would-be victim, according to a complaint filed Wednesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hadassa Waxman.
In September the bureau learned that Valle was instant messaging from his home computer, outlining his outrageous kidnap and torture plot.
When authorities seized his computer, they found files pertaining to at least 100 women with photos of each. He had first and last names for almost all of them and personal information on many.
FBI agents tracked down 10 of these women, who acknowledged knowing Valle. Cell phone records indicated he stalked one woman, who told the FBI she barely knew him.
At one point, Valle described wanting to become a “professional kidnapper,” and he even researched how to use chloroform on a victim.
He apparently became more deranged as the months passed, first offering to sell one woman to the co-conspirator for $5,000 so he could rape and kill her, prosecutors say.
During a February chat, Valle assured the co-conspirator he would deliver the woman alive, but wouldn’t participate in what happened after that.
“I think I would rather not get involved in the rape. You paid for her. She is all yours and I don’t want to be tempted the next time I abduct a girl,” he wrote.
“I am putting my neck on the line here. If something goes wrong somehow, I am in deep s—. $5,000 and you need to make sure that she is not found. She will definitely make the news.”
As the months progressed, however, Valle began talking about taking part in more macabre behavior - cooking and eating his victims.
When his co-conspirator asked, “How big is your oven?” Valle replied, “Big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs.”
Besides being unhinged, it appears Valle was also disgruntled as a cop. On his Facebook page he complained about perps begin released by the “liberal court system” and counted the days until he could retire from the NYPD and begin collecting his pension.
“15 years until I can move the hell out of this rotten scumbag-filled city,” he wrote in a January 2011 posting.
The sick picture of Valle painted by authorities clashed with the image of a married family man offered by neighbors and a relative.
“He’s a nice guy,” Valle’s younger brother insisted Thursday when he stopped by the cop’s apartment to pick up the cop’s beloved bulldog. “I’m upset.”
Valle’s Forest Hills apartment looks like any urban household of two parents raising a young child. A baby jumper was in one corner and a folded-up baby carriage leaning against a wall partially blocked a sign reading, “Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
Three are also child-proof stair guards, photos on the green living room walls and a paper sign taped to one wall above a light switch reading, “Stop! Please wash you hands in the kitchen. Thanks!”
