A dying thief who stole a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Gardland in “The Wizard of Oz” won’t serve any prison time.
Terry Jon Martin, 76, confessed to nicking the slippers from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005 because he wanted to pull off “one last score” and believed the sequin- and glass-bead-adorned shoes were covered in real rubies, The Associated Press reported.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced Martin to time served, a recommendation made by both prosecutors and Martin’s defense attorney, and agreed that he should pay the museum restitution. Schiltz ordered him to pay $300 a month, to reach a total of $23,500.
“I certainly do not want to minimize the seriousness of Mr. Martin’s crime,” the judge said. “Mr. Martin intended to steal and destroy an irreplaceable part of American culture.”
Marin is housebound in hospice care and is expected to die within the next few months. He attended the sentencing hearing in a wheelchair.
The FBI recovered the missing shoes, which had been loaned to the museum by a private collector, in 2018, as CrimeOnline reported.
The shoes — one of four surviving pairs known to be worn by Garland during the 1939 movie — were insured for $1 million at the time they were stolen, but the US Attorney’s Office in North Dakota — which is handling the prosecution after federal prosecutors in Minnesota were recused for an unknown reason — said the current market value is $3.5 million.
The other pairs of the shoes are at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum in Los Angeles, and with a private collector.
L. Frank Baum’s original Oz series of books made Dorothy’s slippers silver, but movie producers changed them to ruby to make them stand out in the color portions of the film. The shoes were created from a white silk pump made by the Innes Shoe Company. They were dyed red and covered in burgundy sequins — a darker color so they wouldn’t appear orange on film.
The stolen shoes were returned to their owner, Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, and will likely be sold at auction after a promotional tour. They will not be returned to the Garland museum, founding director John Kelsh told the AP.
The FBI has not revealed how it tracked down the missing shoes.
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[Featured image: FILE – A pair of ruby slippers once worn by actress Judy Garland in the “The Wizard of Oz” sit on display at a news conference on Sept. 4, 2018, at the FBI office in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP Photo/Jeff Baenen, File)]
