FBI Agent's Testimony Describes Cannibal Talk At NYPD Cop's Trial
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An FBI agent testifying at the cannibalism conspiracy trial of a New York police officer has shown jurors the online writings of a man who claimed he would kill and eat women he knew.
Agent Corey Walsh continued testifying Wednesday in the third day of evidence presentation in the two-week trial of 28-year-old Officer Gilberto Valle.
In testimony that began Tuesday, Walsh displayed numerous online exchanges that the government contends proves Valle intended to kill and eat women.
Valle, writing under the username Mhal52, and a butcher in India chatted online about the officer's plans to torture and cook his soon-to-be wife and a former college roommate, Walsh testified Wednesday.
"I have longed to butcher and cook female meat,'' Officer Gilberto Valle, 28, told the man identified as Aly Khan early last year, according to the testimony of Agent Walsh. Khan offered to provide a place in Pakistan to kill the woman once she was brought to India, Walsh said.
Walsh read the conversation for jurors, one of many Valle had describing how he would like to kidnap, torture and eat women. In this case, Valle offered up his then-girlfriend, Kathleen Mangan.
Khan viewed a photograph and liked her, saying she had meat and wasn't too thin. He told Valle, "Young women are good. Nothing too big and fat." He suggested they all meet in India and told Valle "American meat has its own taste. I'll make a good meal for you."
According to conversations read in court, Valle told Khan that he was a first timer, so Khan was going to help the former cop understand how to slaughter a girl and eat her meat, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
FBI Agent's Testimony Describes Cannibal Talk At NYPD Cop's Trial
Khan explained via chat how it was best to handle women as animals and slit their throats, Papa reported.
"I just love the thought of stringing her up upside down then cooking her slowly until she dies," Valle chatted.
Valle wrote to Khan that he wanted feet soup as an appetizer followed by a hunk of thigh meat as an entree, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
FBI Agent's Testimony Describes Cannibal Talk At NYPD Cop's Trial
The exchange was among numerous Internet chats offered by prosecutors to support charges that Valle conspired with others on the Internet to kidnap, rape, kill and eat women that he knew. Also charged with illegally accessing a government database to research potential victims, Valle could face life in prison if convicted.
No women were injured, and defense lawyers have argued he was merely fantasizing on the Internet with no intent to harm.
According to chats read in court Wednesday, Valle backed up his defense team's argument that the cannibalism talk was purely fantasy.
In one exchange, Valle chatted online with a person using the name Baird.valerie:
Baird.valerie: "So could you sell a slave like that?"
Mhal52: "No, I'm just talking fantasy."
Mhal52: "No matter what I say, it's just make believe."
As CBS 2's Sean Hennessey reported, defense lawyers grilled Walsh who admitted the same topics mentioned in the chats that authorities felt were real were also mentioned in chats authorities said were fantasy.
Defense Attorney: "Isn't it a fact that none of the women mentioned in the chat were tortured?"
FBI Agent Walsh: "Thankfully, no."
Defense Attorney: "Did the FBI find any bodies or body parts attributable to Mr. Valle?"
FBI Agent Walsh: "Thankfully, no."
Valle went on to write that he never carried out any plots because he was too afraid of getting caught, Hennessey reported.
For two days, Walsh has testified about chats Valle participated in last year with a New Jersey co-defendant and two co-conspirators: a man in Great Britain and Khan, both of whom posed on the Internet as veterans of cannibalism who could teach Valle the skills he would need.
In several emails read by Walsh, Valle seemed eager to make the woman he would marry a few months later an offering of sorts to Khan, though he added: "She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on.''
In a later email, Khan taunted Valle for failing to deliver a woman.
"Are you really into it?'' he asked.
"Yes,'' Valle answered.
"Are you sure?'' Khan asked.
"Definitely,'' Valle said.
Khan, apparently pleased with the response, said: "Get your mind ready. I will guide the rest.''
As the instant messages progressed over a series of weeks, Valle began discussing plans to attack a 27-year-old Columbus, Ohio, woman he knew in college.
"I want her to experience being cooked alive,'' he said in one exchange. "She'll be trussed up like a turkey. -- She'll be terrified, screaming and crying.''
He wrote that her death would "definitely make the news'' and there will be "plenty of suspects'' because she is a prosecutor.
The woman, Andria Noble, testified Monday that she never knew Valle to be violent when they were at the University of Maryland together.
If jurors are offended or horrified by the gruesome testimony, they haven't shown it. Three of them even yawned during the reading of the Internet exchanges.
The six men and six women sitting on the jury mostly sat stone-faced and silent on Tuesday and Wednesday as they listened to the agent's monotone recitation of seemingly grimace-worthy evidence _ remarks by Valle like, "I'm dying to taste some girl meat'' and discussions about using one potential victim's severed head as a centerpiece for a feast of body parts.
Before testimony resumed Wednesday, the judge granted a request by prosecutors to present testimony that the alleged kidnapping conspiracy goes back to 2011, but ruled that some of the evidence from then was inadmissible.
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe said prosecutors could use the evidence to show Valle "did not wake up in January 2012 with a sudden desire to kidnap these women.''
Valle's 27-year-old wife, Kathleen Mangan-Valle, has testified that she fled their Queens home in September with their infant daughter after discovering that Valle spent hours at night on extreme sexually violent websites, including one that catered to those interested in cannibalism and asphyxiation. In Reno, Nev., she turned over a computer to the FBI that contained hundreds of Valle's emails and instant messages with what the government has described as co-conspirators.
FBI Agent's Testimony Describes Cannibal Talk At NYPD Cop's Trial
To prove the plots involved real women and to counter defense claims that it was all fantasy, the government summoned several women to testify about their dealings with Valle before prosecutors say he wrote about them as potential targets and, in two cases, potential meals.
The women included a former high school classmate, two former college classmates and an 18-year-old woman who attended Valle's high school alma mater and said she had no contact with him before he described her to one of his Internet friends as "the most desirable piece of meat I've ever met'' and small enough to fit in his oven.
Government witness Kimberly Sauer, 29, testified on Tuesday that she had not seen Valle since their college days when he suddenly began contacting her and even made plans to drive to Maryland to visit her.
Sauer learned of the case only after she received from Valle's wife last year in the middle of the night a disturbing Facebook message that sounded so crazy that she texted him to warn that the account must have been hacked. Either that "or you're trying to sell me into white slavery,'' she recalled joking in the text.
On cross-examination, Sauer told defense attorney Julia Gatto that she never felt threatened by Valle.
But Walsh said Valle's computer had a file titled "Abducting and Cooking Kimberly: A Blueprint,'' which included a photo of Sauer.
Sauer came up frequently as a subject in online chats between Valle and a man in Great Britain who used Moody Blues as a screen name and MeatMarketMan as part of his email address, the agent testified.
Walsh said Moody Blues told Valle he had fantasized about cannibalism since he was 6 years old but did not fulfill the desire until 35 years later.
In one correspondence, Valle suggests a woman named Kimberly -- prosecutors say Sauer -- would be easy prey because she lived alone.
"I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her house,'' he wrote, according to prosecutors.
The agent said Moody Blues suggested eating their victim alive but Valle responded: "I'm not really into raw meat.''
Walsh said they also discussed cooking Sauer, basted in olive oil, over an open fire and using her severed head as a centerpiece for a sit-down meal.
"I just can't wait to get Kimberly cooking,'' the agent quoted Valle as saying.
In a chat, Valle told Moody Blues he was meeting Kimberly for lunch on Sunday and that she would be "kidnapped in a couple of months.''
Moody Blues told him he'd "given thought to your ideas about cooking her alive.''
"Give me some ideas,'' Valle said.
Moody Blues suggested "cutting her feet off and cooking them on the BBQ in front of her.''
"I suppose that's a possibility,'' Valle said. "You are the one with the experience.''
Valle wrote back of his plans to visit Sauer in Maryland, "I'll be eyeing her from top to toe and licking my lips." He added, "My true fantasy is to cook her whole until she dies. If that's impossible, though, we'll think of something else."
According to chats read in court on Wednesday, the former cop concluded the chat, writing, "Slim and sexy is what we want, rotating on the spit."
Walsh also described communications between Valle and his co-defendant, Michael Vanhise, of Trenton, N.J. He said the two negotiated the price to be paid for a Manhattan teacher to be taken to New Jersey in a suitcase for Vanhise to rape and kill.
The agent said Valle asked Vanhise whether he wanted the woman clothed or naked and Vanhise said he wanted her clothed.
"Excellent. I'll leave her clothes on. I'll give you the pleasure of unwrapping your gift,'' Valle was quoted as saying.
The officer had attempted to contact potential victims, including a New York City elementary school teacher, to learn more about their jobs and residences, prosecutors said.
His online research also included the best rope to tie someone up with, recipes, human flesh, white slavery and chemicals that can knock someone out, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson said.
Gatto told jurors the officer wanted only to share extreme sexual fantasies on the Internet with like-minded people, some of the 38,000 registered to a website that caters to those interested in asphyxiation and cannibalism.
Vanhise, like Valle, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers also say he engaged only in Internet fantasy chats.
The government hasn't said what role Moody Blues played in the investigation.
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