UPDATE
Oct 14, 2023 3:25 PM CDT
A 76-year-old Minnesotan has changed his plea after being indicted in May on charges he stole the ruby red slippers worn by Dorothy Gale/Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Terry Martin pleaded guilty Friday in Duluth, per CBS News. The plea deal calls for letting Marin off with time served; he's in hospice care now with advanced COPD. A judge will decide at a future sentencing hearing whether to go along with that.
May 17, 2023 3:24 PM CDT
A man has been indicted on a federal theft charge almost 20 years after one of America's best known pieces of movie memorabilia was stolen. Federal prosecutors in North Dakota say a grand jury indicted Terry Martin in connection with the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, the AP reports. The slippers, one of four remaining pairs Garland wore in the 1939 movie, were recovered in 2018 after what authorities described as a sting operation that followed an extortion; no suspects were apprehended at the time.
According to an indictment filed in US District Court in Minneapolis, Martin stole the slippers in a burglary at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, MPR reports. He has been charged with one count of theft of major artwork. "At the time of theft, the slippers were insured for $1 million but current fair market appraisal value the slippers at $3.5 million," prosecutors said in a press release. (More ruby slippers stories.)
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