In December, a federal appeals court upheld the decision to drop charges against Gilberto Valle, better known as "Cannibal Cop," the former NYPD officer who was accused of conspiring to kill and potentially cook several women. Following an HBO documentary on his case, Valle has begun to give interviews to try to further explain his "dark fantasies," and where he wants to go with his life next.
In an on-camera interview with CBS, Valle attempted to explain the heightened language—which included specifics about oven sizes, cutting people up, and preparing them for consumption—he used in his chat room conversations. "I had created this role where I was the cannibal guy, ‘the chef’ was my username or whatever it was," Valle said. "As time went on, you know, more and more people wanted to do these role plays with me because I was really good. I kind of wanted to provide and be a little more graphic, and kind of not disappoint — again, the competitive side in me came out."
You can watch the interview below.
As for his online history—Valle had visited the rape/murder/cannibalism porn website Dark Fetish Net 1,000 times in 2012 alone, including on his iPhone while on duty as a Harlem cop—he said it was meant to "add realism to the stories" while role-playing, and that he never intended to hurt anyone. "They have a picture of a beautiful woman laid out on a platter — that I found attractive, but as far as actually cutting her, you know, none of that stuff ever… the blood stuff never appealed to me,” Valle said. "I’m not so into the whole cannibal part per se. It’s more about, like, the bondage stuff."
Since he served 21 months in prison, Valle has taken the LSATs and is debating a career in law...or even trying to get reinstated in the NYPD. As for whether he would start visiting those old fetish websites again, he left the door open: "I don’t know, I can’t answer that. I’m not interested in it right now, but if I wanted to, it’s not illegal."
