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A man accused of stealing a pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland while filming ‘The Wizard of Oz’ has been indicted by a North Dakota grand jury.
Terry J. Martin was indicted on one count of theft of a major artwork for the theft of the shoes which were missing for 13 years, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The shoes were recovered by the FBI in 2018 during a sting operation but no arrests were made at the time.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Martin, 76, lives just 12 miles south of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota where the shoes – identified as the ‘traveling pair’ were stolen from.
The traveling pair were one of four pairs worn by the Dorothy actress throughout the filming of the now-iconic film.
A man accused of stealing a pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland while filming ‘The Wizard of Oz’ has been indicted by a North Dakota grand jury
The shoes were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005
They were later recovered by the FBI in 2018 during a sting operation
When reached by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Wednesday, Martin said, ‘I gotta go on trial. I don´t want to talk to you.’
Janie Heitz, executive director of the museum, told The Associated Press she was surprised the suspect lived nearby but said no one who works at the museum knows him.
At the time the slippers were stolen, the precious shoes were insured for $1 million.
In 2023, the current market value is around $3.5 million, prosecutors said.
The slippers were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota when someone climbed through a window and broke the display case.
Speaking with AP, Heitz said she and the museum’s staff were ‘a little bit speechless’ that someone had been charged nearly two decades after the slippers were stolen.
State court records obtained by the Star-Tribune show the man had a previous conviction in Minnesota for receiving stolen property in 1988.
Similar cases brought against him implicated the man had stolen prescription drugs from separate pharmacies.
He also has a lengthy rap sheet including convictions from the 1960s and 1970s ranging from aggravated assault to robbery and burglary.
In 2023, the current market value of the shoes is around $3.5 million, prosecutors said
This is the Judy Garland Museum in the later actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota
The pair that were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum were called the ‘traveling pair’
Over the years, several enticing rewards were offered in hopes that the slippers would turn up. Law enforcement offered $250,000 early in the case, and an anonymous donor from Arizona put up $1 million in 2015.
The road to the missing slippers began when a man told the shoes´ insurer in 2017 that he could help get them back. After a nearly year-long investigation, the FBI nabbed the shoes in Minneapolis in July 2018.
On Wednesday, a summons was issued for Martin.
An initial court appearance was set for June 1, and it will be via video.
Terry Van Horn, spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department in North Dakota, said he could not provide any information beyond what was included in the one-paragraph-indictment.
The shoes are famously associated with one of the iconic lines in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ as Garland’s character Dorothy clicks her heels and repeats the phrase, ‘There´s no place like home.’
They ruby red slippers were made from about a dozen different materials, including wood pulp, silk thread, gelatin, plastic and glass
They are made from about a dozen different materials, including wood pulp, silk thread, gelatin, plastic and glass.
Most of the ruby color comes from sequins but the bows of the shoes contain red glass beads.
The three other pairs Garland wore in the movie were held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian, and a private collector.
When they were stolen, the slippers were on loan from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who received an insurance payment seven years after the theft, according to the museum’s director.
Heitz said the museum staff hopes the slippers will return to Garland’s hometown after the legal case ends.
Source: NewsFinale | Read More
