Reformed mobster went after ‘one last score’ when he stole Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from ‘Oz’

The elderly, reformed gangster who has admitted to stealing a pair of ruby ​​slippers worn by Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ gave in to the temptation of ‘one last score’ after an old Mafia associate led him to believe that the famous shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.

Terry Jon Martin’s attorney finally revealed the 76-year-old’s motive for the 2005 theft from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in a new memo filed ahead of his sentencing on January 29 in Duluth, Minnesota. .

The FBI recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim an insurance reward on them, but Martin wasn’t charged with theft until last year.

Martin admitted in October that he had broken the glass of the museum door and the display case with a hammer to take the slippers. He had hoped to extract real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a fence, a person dealing in stolen goods, told him the rubies were glass and Martin got rid of the slippers less than two days after taking them, he said.

Attorney Dane DeKrey said in his memo that an unidentified former mob associate enticed Martin to steal the shoes even though he had not committed a crime in nearly a decade since his last prison sentence.

“At first Terry declined the invitation to participate in the robbery. But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him awake at night,” DeKrey wrote. ‘After much thought, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to take part in the theft.’

DeKrey and prosecutors recommend that the judge sentence Martin to prison because he is physically incapable of being a threat to society. Martin is in a hospice and has a life expectancy of less than six months. He requires oxygen at all times due to his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was in a wheelchair during his most recent court appearance. Even if he were sentenced to prison, his poor health could be grounds for compassionate release.

Martin had no idea of ​​the cultural significance of the ruby ​​slippers and had never seen the film. Instead, DeKrey said he was just looking for one last big score, and the “old Terry” with a lifelong history of crimes like burglary and receiving stolen property defeated the “new Terry” who “seemed to finally have conquered his demons.” to rest’. after he was released from prison in 1996 and became “a contributing member of society.”

DeKrey urged the judge to consider key events in Martin’s life when deciding whether a lenient sentence is appropriate.

Martin suffered under a cruel stepmother who treated him and his three brothers so poorly for years that he left home at the age of 16 and began drinking and stealing.

While on parole from prison, Martin’s girlfriend became pregnant with twins, but he missed their birth after his parole was revoked. Immediately after his girlfriend took the one-month-old twins to the prison to meet him, they died after a train hit her vehicle.

“This was truly the turning point in Terry’s life – his villain origin story – and the reason he not only started down his dark path, but accelerated towards it,” DeKrey wrote. “His son said it best: ‘the death of the twins made (my father) give up on life; he chose a life of crime.’”

Martin’s attorney also said the judge should take into account that Martin had not committed any other crimes in nearly a decade before stealing the slippers, nor in the years since. DeKrey said Martin didn’t even try to claim some of the insurance money when some of his former associates tried to collect it.

Garland wore several pairs of ruby ​​slippers during the filming of the classic 1939 musical, but only four authentic pairs remain. The stolen slippers were insured for $1 million, but federal prosecutors estimate their current market value at about $3.5 million.

The FBI 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 during an FBI sting in Minneapolis. The FBI has never disclosed how it tracked down the slippers, which are still in the agency’s possession.

The slippers had been loaned to the museum by Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw when Martin stole them. Three other pairs Garland wears in the film are owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.

Over the years, various rewards were offered in the hope of finding out who stole the slippers, the most important props in the film. Garland’s character, Dorothy, must click the heels of the slippers three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home,” to return to Kansas.

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, located in the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia.