MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man accused of long hiding a stolen pair of sequined ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” plans to plead guilty, his attorney confirmed Friday.
The slippers were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Their whereabouts remained a mystery for nearly 13 years until the FBI recovered them in 2018. They fetched a record price for movie memorabilia when they were auctioned off for $32.5 million last month, according to Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale. The buyer still has not been revealed.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, now 77, of Crystal, Minnesota, was charged last March with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering.
He’s expected to plead not guilty when he’s arraigned Monday before a federal magistrate judge, a formality because magistrate judges can’t accept guilty pleas in felony cases in Minnesota. But the district judge overseeing the case on Friday scheduled a change of plea hearing for Jan. 10.
Saliterman's attorney, John C. Brink, confirmed to The Associated Press that his client will change his plea then to guilty, but he declined to give details about any potential plea agreement. The U.S. Attorney's Office for North Dakota, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, now 77, pleaded guilty in 2023 to theft of a major artwork, admitting to what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after turning from a life of crime. He was sentenced last January to time served because of his poor health.
The indictment against Saliterman says that from August 2005 to July 2018, he “received, concealed, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage,” and that Saliterman knew the slippers were stolen.
Saliterman is also in poor health. He was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen last March during his first court appearance.
Authorities have not said how Martin and Saliterman might have been connected. Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at his plea hearing in October 2023 that he hoped to sell what he thought were real rubies from the shoes. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him the rubies weren’t real, he said. Martin said he then got rid of the slippers, but declined to say how he did so.
Garland’s character, Dorothy, wore several pairs while filming the classic 1939 musical, but only four pairs are known to remain. Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned his pair to the museum before Martin stole them. Shaw eventually got them back, and had them auctioned last month.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4 years old. She died in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia.
Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press
