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The relapsed criminal who pulled “one last score” when he swiped the famous ruby slippers from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005 claims he had no idea he was stealing a priceless piece of American culture.
Ahead of his Jan. 29 sentencing, Terry Martin’s lawyer revealed the ex-mobster’s motivation for stealing one of the four pairs of ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. According to the court memo, Martin was offered the job by an old mob associate who told him that the adorning red gemstones, not the shoes themselves, were the true target of the heist. Martin says he intended to remove the gems from the shoes and sell them on the black market, believing they must be real in order to command a $1 million insurance policy the museum had on them.
“He had no idea the cultural significance of the slippers or their theft. In fact, he had never even seen the movie,” Martin’s lawyer wrote.