Dying thief who stole ‘Wizard Of Oz’ ruby slippers likely to avoid 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” is expected to stay out of prison after he is sentenced on Monday.

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

He gave in to temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their insured value of one million dollars (£787,000), his lawyer said in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth, also in Minnesota.

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.

He pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major artwork, admitting to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. 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.

Mr DeKrey wrote 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.

The lawyer wrote: “At first, Terry declined the invitation to participate in the heist. But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him up at night.

“After much contemplation, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to participate in the theft.”

Both sides are recommending that chief US district judge Patrick Schiltz should sentence Martin to time served, because he is housebound under 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.

The FBI said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover the slippers, but demanded more than the 200,000 dollar (£157,000) reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis the next year.

Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about 3.5 million dollars (£2.7 million).

In the classic 1939 musical, Garland’s character, Dorothy, had to click the heels of her ruby slippers three times and repeat: “There’s no place like home”, to return to Kansas from the fantasy world of Oz. She wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain.

The Judy Garland Museum, located in the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard Of Oz memorabilia.