A second man has been charged in connection with the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, Minnesota, did not enter a plea as he was charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering in the District Court in St Paul.
The slippers, adorned with sequins and glass beads, were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, nearly 20 years ago and their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
The indictment says that from August 2005 to July 2018, Saliterman “received, concealed, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage” — specifically, “an authentic pair of ‘ruby slippers’ worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 movie.
The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen, and he threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and “take her down with him” if she did not keep her mouth shut about the slippers.
Saliterman, who declined to comment outside the courthouse after the hearing, was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen during his court appearance.
His lawyer John Brink said: “He’s not guilty. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major artwork, admitting to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his lawyer said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after turning away from a life of crime.
He was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health.
Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at an October hearing that he hoped to take what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them, but when he was told the rubies were not real he got rid of the slippers.
According to his defence lawyer Dane DeKrey, Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen The Wizard of Oz.
The documents unsealed on Sunday do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman may have been connected.
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.
The FBI never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the slippers, but said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them, demanding more than the 200,000 dollar (£157,000) reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis the next year.
Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about 3.5 million dollars (£2.75 million).
Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned the pair to the museum before Martin stole them. The other pairs are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.
According to John Kelsh, the founding director of the museum, the slippers were returned to Shaw and are being held by an auction house that plans to sell them.
