Thought Crimes

Young, handsome and married, New York City police officer Gil Valle had a secret double life. He liked to chat online about kidnapping, raping and eating young women. A lot. When his dark side was discovered, tabloids dubbed him "The Cannibal Cop" and a scandalous criminal trial ensued. While he never physically touched any person named in his charges, he now faced a surprising life sentence. Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr began visiting Valle, who maintained that it was all just fantasy, when the unexpected happened: Valle's conviction was overturned. While awaiting news of either a re-trial or freedom, cameras enter his cloistered life and begin uncovering conflicting stories of what really happened in the wake of all those internet posts. Thought Crimes presses not only the unsettling question of whether he would have actually done any of it, but expertly maps one of the most prescient debates of the online age: when do our virtual thoughts become a crime?