A New York City police officer was arrested yesterday by the FBI for plotting to cook and eat women. The evidence that the bureau has against the six-year veteran seems to plentiful, consisting of emails and instant messages in which he discussed "plans to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat body parts of a number of women".

Though there is indeed a paper trail, it seems that the officer, Gilberto Valle, never followed through on his plans. The messages were shared with an unnamed co-conspirator.

According to ABC News, Valle said to his conspirator, "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."

In another exchange shared in February, Valle offered to kidnap a woman for the cost of $5,000 to deliver to a person. It is believed that Valle thought that he wanted to rape her. The complaint does not identify the woman, but an FBI tracking device indicated that Valle made or received calls on the block where the woman lived.

A search of Officer Valle's computer turned up 100 files of women, with information and photographs obtained from law enforcement databases. The FBI contacted 10 of the women, who all knew him. Even the woman who Valle offered to kidnap knew the police officer, though she said that she did not know him well.

"The allegations in the complaint really need no description from us," the FBI's acting assistant director Mary E. Galligan said in a statement. "They speak for themselves. It would be an understatement merely to say Valle's own words and actions were shocking."

Valle was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and will appear in the Federal District Court this afternoon.

Though cannibalism has not been an altogether practice in history, it has been linked to diseases, most famously kuru. In Papua New Guinea, the 8,000-member Fore tribe was decimated by 1,000 deaths due to the disease, with symptoms including tremors and the inability to stand or eat. It was found that the disease that had ravaged the tribe had been due to cannibalism, as a common practice for funerals was to eat portions of the deceased person's body.

Valle, who worked at the 26th Precinct in Manhattan, lived in Forest Hill, Queens. He is reportedly married.

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