Federal prosecutors insisted that a New York police officer's plot to kidnap, cook and eat women was not just idle Internet talk, saying he "took active and affirmative steps" to carry out the sick scheme.
NYPD Officer Gilberto Valle came to the brink of "kidnapping a woman, cooking her and actually eating her," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hadassa Waxman said in arguing successfully to deny the officer bail Thursday. Valle's attorney countered that her client only indulged in deviant fantasies played out in fetish chat rooms and elsewhere on the Internet.
"Nothing has happened," said the lawyer, Julia Gatto. "We may be offended. We may be alarmed. But it's just talk, your honor."
According to the criminal complaint, the FBI discovered that Valle was discussing the plot through email and instant messaging. The complaint includes stomach-turning details about Valle's alleged plans to victimize and kill numerous women. Investigators discovered that he allegedly created a personal registry on his computer of more than 100 women, complete with photographs and personal information, including addresses and physical descriptions.
Click here to read the criminal complaint.
The criminal complaint details some of the conversations that took place between Valle and various co-conspirators.
In a conversation from July 9 of this year, Valle is asked by an unknown co-conspirator, “How big is your oven?”
Valle allegedly responded: “Big enough to fit one of these girl[s] if I folded their legs…the abduction will have to be flawless…I know all of them.
“I can just show up at [one prospective victim's] home unannounced, it will not alert her, and I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her home,” he also said before boasting that he could make his own chloroform.”
Later, Valle, who law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com is married with a child, mentioned how he would cook his victim.
“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 allegedly wrote.
The complaint also alleges that he met one of his potential victims, an acquaintance from high school, for lunch. Data from Valle's cell phone revealed that he made contact with the victim while he was on her block in Manhattan, according to authorities.The complaint alleges Valle also had aspirations to be a professional kidnapper and had offered to snatch the woman for a few thousand dollars.
"$5,000 and she's all yours," he wrote in a communication with an unidentified person.
In what law enforcement sources confirmed was his profile on the online dating site OKCupid, Valle describes himself as a “ very calm individual” with “an endless supply of hilarious short stories from work that can't be made up.” Valle lists his favorite book as “Green Eggs and Ham,” and says he enjoys Italian, Mexican, Chinese and Japanese food, adding, “I'll try anything and am not picky at all.”
Valle, who last visited the site Sept. 16, wrote that he is "looking for a partner in crime who I look forward to seeing again seconds after I kiss her good-bye." His activity on the site coincides with the time in which he was allegedly conspiring to kidnap and kill women.
Law-enforcement sources close to the case tell FoxNews.com that Valle had recently got into an argument with his wife and she fled to her family's home in Reno, Nevada and contacted local authorities and said that there was "weird stuff" on her husbands computer. That agency contacted the NYPD who through their Internal Affairs department, confiscated his computer and found the incriminating plot scheme on the hard drive.
Sources also say that the co-conspirators were people from overseas and that talks of kidnapping victims for a fee along with other detail was "fantasy stuff." It was not immediately clear if he intended to carry through his cannibalism aspect of his plans.
Valle was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and accessing a computer without authorization and could face up to life in prison.
Officials for the NYPD tell FoxNews.com that Valle was immediately placed on suspension after his arrest.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
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