Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 18, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba The Free Press Classified Department email: wfpclass@freepress.mb.ca or call: 204-697-7100 TO PLACE YOUR EASTER TRIBUTES MESSAGE CONTACT: * Pricing includes a photo. $25 colour photo charge. *Price dependent on the length of announcement. Easter TRIBUTES PRICING 4 Col x 2.25” OPTION 2 $99 95* 2 Col x 1.25” OPTION 1 $49 95 DEADLINE: Monday, March 25, 12:00 PM 2024 PUBLISHING SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024 MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2024 A8 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I WORLD Second man charged in theft of ruby slippers S T. PAUL, Minn. — 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, according to an indict- ment unsealed Sunday. Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, was charged with theft of a major art- work and witness tampering. He did not enter a plea when he made his first court appearance Friday. The slippers, adorned with sequins and glass beads, were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in the late ac- tor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn., nearly 20 years ago and their where- abouts 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 Wizard of Oz.” The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen, and that he threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and “take her down with him” if she didn’t keep her mouth shut about the slippers. Saliterman was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen during his Friday court appearance. His oxygen machine hummed throughout the hear- ing and he bounced his knee nervously during breaks in the proceedings. He responded with “yes,” when U.S. Magis- trate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright asked whether he understood the char- ges against him, but he said nothing about the allegations. The case was not openly discussed in court and the charges were not made public until the court documents were unsealed Sunday. Saliterman’s attorney, John Brink, said after Friday’s hearing that he couldn’t say much about the case, but: “He’s not guilty. He hasn’t done any- thing wrong.” Saliterman, who was released on his own recognizance, de- clined to comment to The Associated Press outside the courthouse. The man who stole the slippers, 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 dis- play case in what his attorney 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’s laywer said in court docu- ments that an old associate of Martin’s with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their US$1 million in- sured value. Martin, who lives near Grand Rap- ids, said at an October hearing that he hoped to take what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him the ru- bies weren’t real, Martin said. So he got rid of the slippers. Defence attorney Dane DeKrey wrote in court documents that Martin’s unidentified former associate persuad- ed him to steal the slippers as “one last score,” even though Martin had seemed to have “finally put his demons to rest” after finishing his last prison term nearly 10 years earlier. “But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him up at night,” DeKrey wrote. According to DeKrey’s memo, Mar- tin had no idea about the cultural sig- nificance of the ruby slippers and had never seen The Wizard of Oz. The documents unsealed Sunday do not indicate how Martin and Saliter- man may have been connected. In the classic 1939 musical, Gar- land’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. The bur- eau said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help re- cover them but demanded more than the US$200,000 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 US$3.5 million. Hollywood memorabilia collector Mi- chael 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 His- tory and a private collector. According to John Kelsh, founding director of the museum, the slippers were returned to Shaw and are being held by an auction house that plans to sell them. Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 320 kilometres north of Minneapolis, until she was four, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which in- cludes the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia. — The Associated Press STEVE KARNOWSKI Famous footwear worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz STEVE KARNOWSKI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jerry Hal Saliterman is wheeled out of U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., Friday. JEFF BAENEN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Ruby slippers once worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz movie are displayed at a news conference on Sept. 4, 2018, at the FBI office in Brooklyn Center, Minn. ;