For thirteen years, a pair of the ruby slippers worn in The Wizard of Oz was missing from public view. The shoes had been stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, during the night of August 27–28, 2005.
Case brief
Grand Rapids, Minnesota · 2005
- Recorded outcome
- Terry Jon Martin pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced in 2024; charges against Jerry Hal Saliterman were dismissed after his 2025 death.
Key moments
People and case photographs
Judy Garland Actor who wore the ruby slippers as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
Publicity photograph · Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via Wikimedia Commons · U.S. public domain- Recovered ruby slippers
The pair recovered by the FBI after the 2005 museum theft
Photo at source · FBI · recovery photographs
Their absence generated tips, searches and possible leads. None brought the slippers home. The development that eventually moved the investigation forward was a demand for money directed at the insurer that then owned them. [1]
The shoes were an unusual target: valuable precisely because so many people could recognize what they were supposed to be. Recovering red, sequined slippers would not be enough. Investigators would have to establish that they had found the stolen film artifacts.
A pair on display in Garland's hometown
The stolen slippers were among the surviving pairs associated with the 1939 film. They were not the separate pair already held by the Smithsonian.
Grand Rapids was Garland's birthplace, and the shoes were on display at the museum bearing her name. Terry Jon Martin later admitted taking them. His 2023 guilty plea established his responsibility for the museum theft, rather than leaving that question at the level of a suspect's arrest. [2]
The original disappearance and the later recovery were separate investigative problems. Finding out who broke into the museum did not, by itself, explain where the slippers had been kept for every intervening year.
Years of leads
The September 2018 recovery announcement described a long investigation that produced leads without producing the shoes. Local police pursued tips, including a search of an abandoned iron-ore pit. Public interest kept the theft visible, but visibility did not reveal the slippers' location.
A new opening appeared in 2017. According to federal authorities, a person approached the insurer in an attempted extortion scheme. The insurer contacted the FBI.
That lead provided an opportunity to investigate people claiming access to the missing property. In July 2018, an undercover operation in Minneapolis recovered the slippers. Authorities announced the recovery that September. [1]
The lapse of thirteen years is part of the story, but it is not permission to invent a continuous itinerary for the shoes. The recovery announcement established the sting and its result. It did not publish a complete, proven account of every person who possessed the pair after the burglary.
How to recognize the real shoes
Authentication brought the investigation into the work of museum conservators. Smithsonian specialists examined the recovered slippers, comparing construction, materials and wear with the institution's knowledge of the film's surviving shoes.
That examination mattered because the familiar silhouette was only the beginning. Red shoes can be copied. An object's materials, repairs and accumulated marks can provide a much more specific identity.
Authorities reported that the examination confirmed the recovered pair as the stolen slippers. The Smithsonian's own pair helped provide the comparative expertise; it was not the pair taken from Minnesota. [1]
This part of the case joined two kinds of evidence. The undercover operation established how investigators recovered the object. Conservation work helped establish what the object was.
Four shoes and an unexpected reunion
At the Smithsonian, conservators could compare the recovered shoes with a pair they had already studied closely. Construction, materials and wear supplied clues. A clear bead bearing red paint recalled a repair observed on the museum's own slippers. The examination also produced a surprise: both sets were mismatched. The recovered left shoe corresponded to the museum's right, and vice versa. Briefly brought together, the four shoes formed matching pairs. [6]
The museum's account carefully describes its contribution as sharing conservation knowledge, rather than providing a commercial authentication service. This was evidence about the objects' history. It could help establish that the recovered shoes were consistent with the film artifacts, but it did not identify who broke into the Minnesota museum. That question required a separate investigation and, eventually, Martin's admission. [1][2][6]
Recovery did not immediately mean an arrest
The 2018 recovery announcement asked the public for more information even while reporting that the slippers had been found. Investigators had obtained the objects through an operation following an approach to the insurer. Possession of the shoes and knowledge of the original burglary were questions that still had to be worked through. The thirteen-year search had reached a major turning point, but the criminal case had not yet reached its ending. [1]
Five more years separated that announcement from Martin's guilty plea. His January 2024 sentence concerned the theft, while the later auction concerned the value collectors placed on the recovered artifacts. The museum restitution figure, the slippers' sale price and the historical insurance valuation answer different questions. Keeping them separate avoids turning a spectacular auction result into the amount the court ordered Martin to pay. [2][3][4]
A guilty plea, then an unusual sentence
On October 13, 2023, Martin pleaded guilty to theft of major artwork. The plea arrived more than eighteen years after the shoes disappeared.
On January 29, 2024, a federal judge sentenced him to time served and one year of supervised release. The court also ordered $23,500 in restitution to the Judy Garland Museum. [2] [3]
The restitution amount can be misleading if separated from its recipient and purpose. It was not an appraisal of the slippers and should not be presented as their market value. Likewise, a sentence of time served remained a criminal sentence following a guilty plea. It did not mean Martin had been cleared.
The recovery, plea and sentencing occurred on different timelines. The slippers came back in 2018. Martin admitted the theft in 2023. His sentence followed in 2024.
A second prosecution ended without a conviction
Another Minnesota man, Jerry Hal Saliterman, faced charges in 2024 related to the slippers, including theft of major artwork and witness intimidation.
That case did not end in a conviction. The Brainerd Dispatch reported that Saliterman died on March 16, 2025, and that the charges were dismissed the next day. A planned guilty-plea hearing had been postponed because of his health; a planned plea was not an entered plea. [5]
His death left the allegations against him unadjudicated in that prosecution. Martin's conviction cannot be used to supply a conviction for someone else.
The sale after the recovery
The slippers' later auction produced a number far larger than the museum restitution order. Heritage Auctions reported that they sold on December 7, 2024, for $32.5 million, including the buyer's premium. That figure is the auction house's reported transaction total. [4]
The sale did not rewrite the crime, but it gave the recovered object another public chapter. The shoes had moved from film set to collectible, from museum display to stolen property, and from an undercover operation back into a market where their history could be examined openly.
What distinguishes the investigation is the combination of patient criminal work and exacting attention to the artifact itself. A demand for money created a lead. Investigators recovered a pair of shoes. Conservators helped show that these were the shoes everyone had been looking for.
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The recovered red slippers
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The recovered film artifacts returned after thirteen years; recovery and prosecution occurred at different times.
Stylized shoes, not photographs or a replica of the actual exhibits.
The unexpected matching pairs
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Conservators compared the recovered shoes with the Smithsonian pair and found reciprocal matches.
Generic conservation symbol. Object comparison did not identify the burglar.
An admission five years later
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Martin’s guilty plea admitted the theft separately from the earlier examination of the shoes.
No authentic signed plea reproduced. This concerns Martin, not the unadjudicated allegations against Saliterman.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- FBI Recovers Stolen Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz2005 theft, 2017 extortion lead, July 2018 recovery and Smithsonian authentication.
- Minnesota Man Pleaded Guilty to Theft of Ruby SlippersMartin's guilty plea and admitted museum theft.
- Minnesota Man Sentenced for Theft of Ruby SlippersTime served, one year supervised release and $23,500 restitution.
- Heritage Auctions: Dorothy's Ruby Slippers Sell for $32.5 MillionAuction house's reported sale total, including buyer's premium.
- Minnesota man accused of hiding Wizard of Oz ruby slippers has died; his charges have been droppedSaliterman's death, dismissal of pending charges and absence of an entered guilty plea.
- Smithsonian museum staff: examining the recovered ruby slippersConservators describe material comparisons and reciprocal mismatched pairs; not an identification of the thief.
Editorial review: 2026-09-30 · 1162 words