Synopsis
In 2012, Gilberto Valle, a 28-year-old NYC police officer, was labeled "The Cannibal Cop" in the tabloid media after he was charged with conspiracy to kidnap, cook and eat a number of female victims, whose information he had gathered through NYPD databases. At trial, Valle's defense team argued that his admittedly intricate and disturbing plans, posted on a fetish website and uncovered by his wife, were nothing more than fantasy, while the prosecution countered that Valle was a disturbed, potentially dangerous predator who had been stopped before committing heinous crimes. The question facing jurors: could Valle be convicted for something he had never acted upon? Making her feature documentary debut, director Erin Lee Carr probes into the perverse corners of the human psyche, challenging our fundamental beliefs about the criminal justice system, and the line between right and wrong, as it applies to the ever-evolving digital world. With exclusive access to Valle, Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop explores our darkest thoughts -- and the Internet's ability to render those thoughts visible.