A second man is accused of stealing the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” in 2005, according to an indictment unsealed Sunday.
Jerry Hull Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, Minnesota, was charged with major art theft and witness tampering. He did not enter a plea during his first appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.
Decorated with sequins and glass beads, the slippers were stolen nearly 20 years ago from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
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According to the indictment, between August 2005 and July 2018, Saliterman “received, concealed, and disposed of cultural heritage items” — specifically, “Judy in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.” According to the indictment, Sariterman knew the slippers had been stolen, and if the woman did not speak up about the slippers, he would release her sex tape. He allegedly threatened to “take her away.”
Saliterman was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen during Friday’s court appearance. The sound of his oxygen machine rang throughout the hearing, and he nervously bounced his knees during breaks in proceedings. When asked by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright if he understood her charges against him, he said “yes,” but said nothing about her charges.
The case was not publicly discussed in court. A magistrate judge ordered the indictment to be unsealed on Friday, but it was not publicly released until Sunday.
Ruby slippers once worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on display at a press conference at the FBI offices in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on September 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Behnen, File)
Saliterman’s attorney, John Brink, said after Friday’s hearing that he could not say much about the case, but said, “He is innocent. He did nothing wrong.” Saliterman was released on his own recognizance, but he declined to comment to The Associated Press outside court.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry John Martin, 76, pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major art object and admitted breaking the museum door and display case glass with a hammer, his lawyer said. He said that he was trying to He turned his attention away from a life of crime and made “one last point.” He was sentenced to prison in January due to poor health.
Martin’s attorney said in court documents that an old colleague of Martin’s with mob ties told him the shoes needed to be adorned with real jewelry to justify the $1 million insurance policy.
Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at a hearing in October that he wanted to remove what he thought was a real ruby from the shoe and sell it. But Martin said he was told by a stolen goods dealer known as Fence that the ruby was not real. So he got rid of the slippers.
Defense attorney Dane Decray said in court documents that even though Martin appeared to have “finally put his demons to rest” after serving his final sentence of about 10 years, an unidentified former co-worker told Martin wrote that he persuaded her to steal his slippers as a “last score.” Before.
“But old habits die hard, and thinking about the ‘final score’ kept me up at night,” Decray wrote.
According to DeCray’s notes, Martin knew nothing about the cultural significance of the ruby slipper and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.”
The documents unsealed Sunday do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman were related.
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 get back to Kansas from Oz. She wore several pairs of shoes during filming, but it is known that only four authentic pairs remain.
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The FBI did not say exactly how it tracked the slippers. The bureau said the man contacted his insurance company in 2017 and said he could help collect the money, but was asked to pay more than the $200,000 he was being offered. The slippers were recovered the following year during an FBI sting operation in Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors estimate the slippers’ street value at about $3.5 million.
Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned the pair to the museum before Martin stole them. Other pairs are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and private collectors. The slippers were returned to the show and are being held by the auction house that plans to sell them, said John Kelsch, the museum’s founding director.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 320 miles north of Minneapolis, until her four years of age, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She passed away in her 1969 year. Judy’s Garland Museum, which includes her home where she lived, is said to have the world’s largest collection of Garland and her “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia.
