Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop

First off, I must admit, I stumbled upon this documentary thinking it was a cooking show. Well, let me tell you, it's quite the unique recipe for a night of entertainment! Imagine Hannibal Lecter meets Law & Order, with a sprinkle of 50 shades of strange. It's a feast for the imagination, though not the one you'd expect.

The film's title might sound like a cooking competition gone horribly wrong, but it's actually about the legal intricacies of an ex-cop's online fantasies. The storytelling is as riveting as a suspenseful episode of MasterChef, just without the mouth-watering dishes. Bon appétit, my fellow cinephiles!

This was a strange case and even stranger that this former New York City policeman and his parents would allow themselves to be filmed in such detail to complete this documentary. Not surprisingly there was no formal comments from his former employer, the FBI, the NYPD, nor from his ex-wife and/or her family.

On the other hand, Gilberto Valle, is under a no contact order from his ex-wife, and has been unable to see his daughter. I think the punishment fits his crime.

There should be a law whereby certain individuals are banned for life from accessing anything on the internet. We could call it Valle's Law.

I give this documentary a decent 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

Gilberto Valle, a New York cop, is a member on a website dealing with sexual fetishes. Together with two other guys they talk about his plans to kidnap 24 women, roast them and eat them. He also makes preparations. But at the same time they all specifically say that it's pure fantasy and none of them actually mean that. The place where he says he has a big oven is actually a basement with laundry machines. He is trialed for conspiracy (not attempt, which is totally different).

Where is the limit between fantasy and actual intent to commit a crime? Can you judge someone based only on his deviant thoughts? Why is it OK for a writer such as Stephen King to write horrible stories about murders, but not for a "regular" guy to have fantasies? This is a very unusual case and a very interesting documentary.

If you're interested to know what happened with the trial after the documentary, you can read about it on Wikipedia.

Highly recommended

An interesting true crime case that could've been told in 45mins rather than an hour and a half.

After being charged with conspiracy and having a judge overturn it... it sort of COMPLETLY undermines THREAT LAWS. Your not allowed to threaten Death to another person.. but is it only a threat if you tell the person you're threatening? What if you told everyone in SoCal media that you wanted to murder a politician... you'd be charged with uttering threats.. maybe not conspiracy unless you had an actual plan in play.. but the threat is real... had he not been exposed would he have gone through with it? Unknown.. just like the threat of death on another person.. it still was a threat.