'Wizard of Oz' ruby slippers once stolen in museum heist now up for auction

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: If you have ever wanted to own a piece of Hollywood history, now’s your chance.

A pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers are up for auction. And just like Dorothy, this pair of shoes has been on its own long and very strange journey.

Special correspondent Megan Thompson explains for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Judy Garland, Actress: Too late. There they are and there they will stay.

Megan Thompson: Dorothy’s ruby slippers, some of the most iconic movie memorabilia of all time, worn by actor Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz.”

John Kelsch, Curator, Judy Garland Museum: It’s such a story of promise and hope. Frank Sinatra said, we will all be forgotten, all of us, but not Judy. And I think he was right on.

Megan Thompson: John Kelsch has made preserving Garland’s legacy his life’s work as the curator of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, a small city three hours north of Minneapolis.

John Kelsch: Judy Garland’s parents owned this House for seven years.

Megan Thompson: Born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922, Garland lived here until she was 4 and got her start performing at a local theater. More than 10,000 fans make the trek each year to visit her childhood home and the museum.

John Kelsch: The slippers were exhibited on top of this pedestal.

Megan Thompson: Over the years, the museum displayed a pair of the famous ruby slippers loaned from a Hollywood memorabilia collector named Michael Shaw. In August 2005, the slippers were at the museum for the fourth time when everything was shattered.

John Kelsch: So he used a handheld sledgehammer.

Megan Thompson: A thief in the night smashed the glass of a side door and walked right in.

John Kelsch: Creeped along this wall like that. We’re a small-town museum. We had security, but there were many lapses. It was almost a perfect storm and you might say a comedy of errors.

Megan Thompson: The door’s alarm had been disabled because school children kept tripping it. There were no cameras recording, no motion detectors in the gallery.

When Kelsch, museum director at the time, arrived the next morning:

John Kelsch: And I said, well, there’s a sequin.

Megan Thompson: All that was left was a single sequin on the floor.

John Kelsch: You just feel violated and trust is gone. And our credibility for borrowing other artifacts was destroyed.

Pam Dowell, Freelance Writer: When you think of “The Wizard of Oz” and the magic of “The Wizard of Oz,” they’re going into this far-off fantasy land and they’re meeting these weird people. That’s what these shoes did in real life in the criminal caper.

Megan Thompson: Pam Dowell is a freelance writer in Grand Rapids who covered the crime for the local papers.

Pam Dowell: I was making phone calls to everybody.

Megan Thompson: As the years went by and the case went cold, rumors swirled. Was it local kids, an unscrupulous fan, the shoe’s owner looking for an insurance payout?

Pam Dowell: Inside job because it just seemed like there were too many things that went awry that night. So there were lots of different speculations.

Brian Manson, Grand Rapids Police Department: Ruby slippers.

Megan Thompson: Brian Manson (ph) is an investigator with the Grand Rapids Police Department, who chased several ruby slipper leads.

Brian Manson: And, all of a sudden, he’s like, you’re not going to believe it.

Megan Thompson: Once staking out a house in the woods, where he found this pair of high heels covered in glitter.

Brian Manson: I see it says “Made in China.” So I was kind of mad.

Megan Thompson: But another lead that Manson worked ended up cracking the case.

In 2018, 13 years after the heist, the shoes were recovered during an FBI sting operation in Minneapolis. But the first indictment wouldn’t come for five more years. So who were the alleged criminal masterminds that eluded the law for almost two decades? Two buddies named Terry and Jerry, career criminals who decided to team up for one last score, both in ill health by the time they showed up to court.

Pam Dowell: Got now these two older guys, kind of crusty, little buggers. It doesn’t it doesn’t fit the story of what we have speculated on.

Megan Thompson: Terry Martin, who lives in Grand Rapids, claimed in court he mistakenly thought the shoes were made of real rubies.

Pam Dowell: I believe that they got something that was too hot to move. And they were very specific. They were identifiable. So then they had to sit on them.

Megan Thompson: And so the slippers sat, allegedly in Jerry Saliterman’s backyard near Minneapolis, buried for years in a plastic box.

Ryan Lintelman, Smithsonian Institution: I think that clearly the ruby slippers are among the most iconic and valuable piece of movie memorabilia.

Megan Thompson: Ryan Lintelman is the curator of the Entertainment Collection at the National Museum of American History, where the FBI brought the shoes for authentication. Lintelman’s team compared them to another pair of ruby slippers the museum owns.

Ryan Lintelman: And the real smoking gun was a missing stone from one of the bows that had been replaced during production with a clear stone that was painted red, a detail that had never been published about the ruby slippers before. Not even the most skilled forger would know to do that.

Megan Thompson: Lintelman says the Smithsonian slippers, one of four pairs known to exist, are one of its most popular items, seen by more than 100 million people over the years.

Ryan Lintelman: I think people bring a lot of personal memories and love of Hollywood film.

Actress: Follow the yellow brick road.

Ryan Lintelman: But I think they also bring this sort of interest in Dorothy’s journey and the way that that’s played out in their lives.

Megan Thompson: In March, the stolen pair were reunited with their owner, Michael Shaw, who decided to put them up for auction.

Janie Heitz, Executive Director, Judy Garland Museum: This is Judy.

Megan Thompson: Janie Heitz, the current executive director of the Judy Garland Museum, is raising money to make a bid, saying for the ruby slippers, there’s no place like home.

Janie Heitz: Having a pair of ruby slippers in her hometown, where she was happy as a child, would be a good Hollywood happy ending to this saga of the ruby slippers.

Megan Thompson: The slippers are estimated to be worth more than $3 million, and online bidding, which started on November 1, is already nearing $1 million.

Janie Heitz: It’s definitely an uphill battle, but dreams really do come true.

Megan Thompson: The museum is accepting donations in person and on its Web site, and Heitz is approaching big-dollar donors across the country. The state of Minnesota has even pledged $100,000, with Governor Tim Walz promising 24/7 “Oceans 11”-proof security.

Actress: Tap your heels together three times.

John Kelsch: They have a power that is mythical. Even if we aren’t successful at the auction, perhaps someone will donate them someday. We could be surprised.

Megan Thompson: Bidding for the ruby slippers will end at a live auction in Dallas on December 7.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Megan Thompson in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.