'Thought Crimes' Preview: Inside the Head of New York's 'Cannibal Cop'

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

This is definitely one of those “Only in New York…” stories. In 2013, NYPD cop Gilberto Valle was tried and convicted for conspiring to kidnap and then consume several female victims. Valle, who became known as the “Cannibal Cop,”  hadn’t actually followed through with these plans, but he had outlined his ideas — often in graphic detail — on various Internet forums where other anonymous users shared their own dark fantasies. Shared in court, those posts were enough to convince a jury to find him guilty, and he served a two-year stint in prison before a judge overturned the sentence.

Among the visitors he received while behind bars was Erin Lee Carr, a journalist and documentary filmmaker fascinated with the way the Cannibal Cop case dovetailed with her own interest in the darker recesses of the Internet. “I would say that everyone was really nervous,” Carr tells Yahoo TV about her first time meeting Valle in prison. “Speaking plainly, it was really uncomfortable for both of us, not because I was worried that he was going to do anything whatsoever, but that this was such an unorthodox situation.”

Carr continued to visit Valle after he was released, and those interviews make up the bulk of Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop, which premieres May 11 on HBO. (The film is dedicated to Carr’s father, celebrated New York Times media reporter, David Carr, who passed away in February.) “I do think Gil became comfortable around us [as filming continued],” she says. “We kept the crew small and the nervousness and anxiety fell away and it became sort of second nature for him.” And while she admits that, going into the film, she felt a “high level of empathy” for her subject, she worked to ensure that the film didn’t become an opinion piece. “I think Gil wished this would be a film about his innocence,” explains Carr. “But as you’ll see, there are a lot of things to think about.”

Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop airs May 11 at 9 p.m. on HBO.