Dying thief who stole Wizard Of Oz ruby slippers from US museum avoids prison

A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard Of Oz because he wanted to pull off “one last score” avoided prison at his sentencing hearing on Monday.

Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actress’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

He gave into temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their one million-dollar insured value, his lawyer revealed in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth.

The FBI recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim a reward. Martin was not charged with stealing them until last year.

But his motivation remained mostly a mystery until defence lawyer Dane DeKrey revealed it this month.

Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at the October hearing that he hoped to remove what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them.

But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him the rubies were glass, Martin said. So he got rid of the slippers.

Mr DeKrey wrote in his memo that Martin’s unidentified former mob associate persuaded him to steal the slippers as “one last score”, even though Martin had seemed to have “finally put his demons to rest” after finishing his last prison term nearly 10 years ago.

Both sides recommended that Chief US District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentence Martin to time served because he is housebound in hospice care and is expected to die within six months.

He requires constant oxygen therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and was in a wheelchair when he pleaded guilty.

Federal sentencing guidelines would have normally recommended a sentence of about four and a half years to six years. Another prosecution filing said both sides agreed he should be ordered to pay 23,500 dollars (£18,519) in restitution to the museum, even though he apparently does not have the money.

According to Mr DeKrey, Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen The Wizard Of Oz.

The FBI never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the slippers. The bureau said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the 200,000-dollar (£157,610) reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI operation in Minneapolis the next year.

Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about 3.5 million dollars (£2.76 million).