A
New York City police officer convicted last year of conspiring to kidnap, kill
and eat women — dubbed the “Cannibal Cop” — now works as a cook as he serves
out his sentence in jail.
The
New York Daily News said 30-year-old Gilberto Valle makes 44 cents an hour
preparing breakfast and lunch daily for his fellow prisoners in a kitchen at
the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
“He
has mastered making pizza,” his mother, Elizabeth Valle, told the paper. “He’s
not the monster they portray him to be.”
The
former cop has been in jail since he was convicted last May for conspiring to
kidnap, murder, cook and eat women, including his own wife. He never carried
out his fantasies and has yet to be sentenced, as the judge is still weighing
his request for an appeal.
His
lawyers maintained that the list, chats and plots were mere fantasies, peppered
with pictures and obscured references to real people in Valle’s life to make
them seem more real.
None
was acted upon.
“The
jury cannot convict a ‘kidnapper’ for a ‘conspiracy’ that exists only in Never
Never Land,” his lawyers said in court filings.
Prosecutors
argued that Mr. Valle plotted to abduct, torture and cannibalize six women he
knew personally, and he took concrete steps to carry out his plot.
Mr.
Valle’s lawyers said, however, that their client was convicted on mere
fantasies and inflammatory statements instead of evidence.
He
faces up to life in prison if the conviction stands.
His
mother told the Daily News that Mr. Valle has been well-behaved since his
incarceration and gets along with the other inmates.
Inmates
joke around with him by saying, “Don’t stand too close to the oven,” his mother
said.
