the second thief of the ruby ​​slippers has probably been found in the USA

In the USA, law enforcement officers charged a 76-year-old man, who is considered the “second thief” of the ruby ​​slippers from the movie “The Wizard of Oz.”

The legendary pair of shoes worn by Hollywood star Judy Garland in the 1939 film was stolen from a museum in Minnesota in 2005.

The police found the shoes in 2018, and last year the first suspect, Terry Martin, confessed to the theft.

Now 76-year-old Jerry Gale Saliterman from the city of Crystal is suspected of keeping stolen shoes, the Associated Press reports.

The man has already been charged with “theft of an outstanding work of art” and “falsification of evidence”, and prosecutors estimated the value of the shoes at approximately $3.5 million.

At the same time, the court documents do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman could be related to each other.

Saliterman’s hearing was held March 15 in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. During the meeting, the elderly man was in a wheelchair and in an oxygen machine.

The prosecution alleges that between August 2005 and July 2018, Jerry Saliterman hid the shoes, knowing they were stolen.

Moreover, he allegedly threatened a woman who knew about his secret with sexual revenge if she “didn’t keep her mouth shut.”

Attorney John Brink declined to comment on the details of the case to reporters. “He’s not guilty. He didn’t do anything wrong.”– only the lawyer said.

The red shoes, decorated with sequins and rhinestones, were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids nearly 20 years ago.

Judy Garland’s shoes were carefully searched, because they are an object of cultural heritage. The FBI found the shoes as late as 2018.

In October 2023, 76-year-old Terry John Martin pleaded guilty to a 20-year-old theft. The man said that he broke the glass on the museum’s door and window with a hammer in order to steal a valuable exhibit and sell it.

Martin’s lawyer claimed that he was pushed to commit the theft by an old acquaintance with ties to the mafia. Like, he told him that the shoes were decorated with real rubies worth 1 million dollars. But the buyer of the stolen goods explained to the man that the rubies were not real, and he decided to get rid of the legendary pair of shoes.

At the same time, the lawyer stated that Terry Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby ​​slippers and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.”

We will remind, “The Wizard of Oz” is a famous American musical of 1939 directed by Victor Fleming, based on the book by Frank Baum.

The film from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio remained at the top of the lists of the most popular films of the 20th century for 60 years.

The main role of schoolgirl Dorothy was played by Oscar-winning actress Judy Garland. In the classic 1939 musical, her character had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home” to get back from Oz to Kansas.

In the original book, the main character’s shoes were silver. However, to take advantage of the new Technicolor technology, costume designers chose red for them, the National Museum of American History says.

The shoes for the film were designed by Gilbert Adrian, MGM’s chief costume designer. Judy Garland wore several pairs of shoes during filming, but only four have survived.

That pair, housed at the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota, originally belonged to Hollywood collector Michael Shaw. He gave the pair to the museum before it was stolen.

The FBI has never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the shoes. It is known that this was a whole special operation in Minneapolis.

Other pairs of ruby ​​shoes are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and a private collector.