Suspect Indicted After Stealing The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers Worn by Judy Garland
A grand jury has ignited a man on charges of stealing a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the iconic film The Wizard of Oz. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in North Dakota announced that Terry Martin was indicted on Tuesday on one count of theft of a major artwork for the 2005 theft According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (via Associated Press), Martin is 76 years old and lives just 12 miles from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota where the slippers were stolen from. Per their report, Martin commented "I gotta go on trial. I don't want to talk to you."
While making The Wizard of Oz, Garland wore several pairs of slippers and of the original slippers, only four pairs remain. The pair in question — which were insured for $1 million but have a current market value of around $3.5 million — were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum at the time of the theft in 2005. At that time, someone climbed through a window in the museum, broke the display case, and stole the artifact. The slippers were missing for years, even with an anonymous donor coming forward in 2015 to offer a $1 million reward. Seven years following the theft, the owner of the slippers, Michael Shaw, received an insurance payment in compensation for the lost shoes.
In 2017, a man came forward and told the shoes' insurer that he could help get the shoes back and then, in 2018 after a nearly yearlong investigation, the FBI recovered the shoes that July, though at that time the agency said that no one had been arrested or charged in the case. Martin is now set to have an initial court appearance on June 1st. That appearance will be via video. It is unclear where the recovered shoes will end up after the legal case is resolved.
As for the remaining three pairs of ruby slippers, they are currently in the hands of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian, and a private collector. Interestingly, according to the Smithsonian, the pair recovered pair of slippers, when compared to the pair that the museum has on display, actually create two matching pairs as the sets as they currently exists are "mismatched twins". You can read more about that on the Smithsonian's website here.
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