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DULUTH, Minn. – 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 score “one last goal” received no prison sentence at his sentencing hearing Monday. .
Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the sequin- and glass-bead-embellished sneakers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the late actor’s hometown. He fell into temptation after a former associate with mob connections told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their million-dollar insured value, his attorney revealed in a memo to federal court before his sentencing in Duluth.
Martin showed little emotion as the judge handed down the sentence and was physically unable to fully rise from his chair when the judge adjourned the hearing. He refused to address the court. But defense attorney Dane DeKrey said the resolution of the case should provide closure for the government, the museum, the owner of the sneakers and Martin himself.
The government was able to hold one person responsible, DeKrey said, while the museum and the collector who owned the sneakers figured out what happened. And Martin was able to close this chapter in the last months of his life instead of taking his secret to the grave.
“They will never be compensated in this case,” the lawyer said of the victims. “But they are more complete than they have been in the last 18 years.”
The FBI recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim a reward. Martin wasn’t accused of stealing them until last year. Prosecutor Matthew Greenley said in court Monday that investigators used phone records to locate Martin and used his wife’s immigration status as leverage to search Martin’s home and get him to confess.
In October he pleaded guilty to theft of an important work of art and admitted to using a hammer to break the glass of the museum’s door and display case to take the sneakers. But her motivation remained largely a mystery until DeKrey revealed it in a court filing 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. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him that the rubies were not real, Martin said. He then got rid of the slippers.
DeKrey wrote in his memo that an unnamed former partner of Martin’s convinced him to steal the sneakers as “a last goal,” even though Martin seemed to have “finally put his demons to rest” after finishing his last prison sentence almost 10 years before.
“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 awake at night,” DeKrey wrote. “After much contemplation, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to participate in the robbery.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz accepted both sides’ recommendation to sentence Martin to time served because he is homebound under hospice care and is expected to die in the coming months. He requires constant oxygen therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and had to be wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair. The loud hum of his oxygen machine echoed through the courtroom.
Schiltz told Martin that he probably would have sentenced him to 10 years in prison if it were still 2005. The judge also accepted both sides’ recommendation that Martin should pay $23,500 in restitution to the museum and ordered him to pay $300 a month.
“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.”
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.” Instead, DeKrey said, the “old Terry” with a long history of burglaries and receiving stolen property defeated the “new Terry” who had become “a contributing member of society” after his release from prison in 1996.
After Fence told Martin the rubies were fake, DeKrey wrote, he gave the sneakers to his former partner and told him he never wanted to see them again. The lawyer said Martin never heard from the man again. Martin has declined to identify anyone else who was involved in the robbery and no one else has been charged in the case.
The FBI never revealed exactly how it tracked down the sneakers. The office said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them, but demanded more than the $200,000 reward that was offered. The sneakers were recovered during an FBI operation in Minneapolis the following year.
Federal prosecutors have estimated the market value of the sneakers at about $3.5 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 Oz. She wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain.
Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned a pair to the museum before Martin stole them. The other three are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian American History Museum and a private collector.
According to John Kelsh, founding director of the Judy Garland Museum, the sneakers were returned to Shaw and are in the custody of an auction house that plans to sell them after a promotional tour. He told reporters that he doubts they will ever return to Grand Rapids.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until age 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969.
The Judy Garland Museum, which includes the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia. The museum’s executive director, Janie Heitz, said in court that the theft cost it “a significant amount of credibility” and made it difficult to borrow other objects related to Garland and the film, as well as hurt attendance.