ST. PAUL, Minn. — A second man has been charged in connection with the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” according to an indictment released Sunday.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, was charged with theft of a large work of art and witness tampering. He did not enter a plea when he first appeared in court on Friday.
The slippers, decorated with sequins and glass beads, were stolen nearly two decades ago from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
The indictment states that from August 2005 to July 2018, Saliterman “received, concealed and discarded an item of cultural heritage” — specifically “an authentic pair of ‘ruby slippers’ worn by Judy Garland in the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ dated 1939. . . .’” The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen, and threatened to release a woman’s sex tape and “take her away” if she didn’t keep quiet about the slippers.
Saliterman was in a wheelchair during his court appearance on Friday and received supplemental oxygen. His oxygen machine buzzed during the hearing and he wiggled his knee nervously during pauses in the procedure. He responded “yes” when U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright asked if he understood the charges against him, but he said nothing about the allegations.
The case was not openly discussed in court and the charges were not made public until the court documents were released on Sunday.
Saliterman’s attorney, John Brink, said after Friday’s hearing that he couldn’t say much about the case, but: “He’s not guilty. He did nothing wrong.” Saliterman, who was released on his own recognizance, declined to comment to The Associated Press outside the courthouse.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty in October to theft of a large work of art. He admitted using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case, which his lawyer said was an attempt to pull out the slippers. of “one last score” after turning away from a life of crime. He was sentenced to prison in January due to his poor health.
Martin’s lawyer said in court documents that a longtime associate of Martin’s with Mafia connections told him the shoes needed to be decorated with real jewelry to justify the $1 million insured value.
Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at an October hearing that he hoped to extract what he believed were real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, told him the rubies weren’t real, Martin said. So he took off the slippers.
Attorney Dane DeKrey wrote in court documents that Martin’s unidentified former associate persuaded him to steal the slippers as “a final score,” even though Martin appeared to have “finally put his demons to rest” after completing his final nearly decade-long prison sentence. had served. earlier.
“But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him awake at night,” DeKrey wrote.
According to DeKrey’s memo, Martin had no idea of the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.”
The documents released Sunday do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman might have been connected.
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 Oz. She wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to exist.
The FBI has never revealed exactly how it tracked down the slippers. The agency said a man approached the insurer in 2017, claiming he could help get them back, but demanded more than the $200,000 reward that was offered. The slippers were recovered the following year during an FBI sting in Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors estimate the market value of the slippers at about $3.5 million.
Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned the pair to the museum before Martin stole them. The other pairs are owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector. According to John Kelsh, the museum’s founder and director, the slippers have been returned to Shaw and are being held by an auction house that plans to sell them.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis, until she was four, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which includes the house where she lived, claims to have the largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia in the world.
