Motive for man who stole a pair of ruby slippers revealed
(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Terry Jon Martin, an aging reformed mobster who has admitted to stealing a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz," gave into temptation of "one last score" after an old mob associate led him to believe the famous shoes must be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.
In a new memo filed ahead of his sentencing in Duluth, Minnesota on January 29, Martin's defense attorney finally revealed the 76-year-old's motive for the 2005 theft from The Judy Garland Museum in the late actor's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim an insurance reward on them, but Martin wasn't charged with stealing them until last year.
Martin pleaded guilty in October to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. He had hoped to harvest real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a fence, a person who deals in stolen goods, informed him the rubies were glass and Martin got rid of the slippers less than two days after he took them, he said.
In the memo, Defense Attorney Dane DeKrey said an unidentified former mob associate tempted Martin to steal the shoes, even though he hadn't committed a crime in nearly 10 years after his last prison stint.
