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Judy Garland’s “Wizard of Oz” ruby slippers up for auction 19 years after they were stolen
A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, convinced they were adorned with real jewels.
Online bidding has started and will continue through Dec. 7, Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release Monday.
The auction company received the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who originally owned the footwear at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical. Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
That summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
“It’s become an infamous thing for us,” said Janie Heitz, executive director of the Judy Garland Museum. “We will forever be known as a place where the ruby slippers were stolen, which comes with a lot of bad but can also come with some good because it put us on the map.”
Now the museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four remain.
Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland festival. The funds will supplement the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to purchase the slippers.
At the time they were stolen, the shoes were insured for $1 million. Now they will go on the auction block this December for an estimated valuation of $3.5 million or more.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, was 76 when he was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health. He admitted to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.
The auction of movie memorabilia includes other items from “The Wizard of Oz,” such as a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home.
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Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine, the Department of Justice announced.
Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” pled guilty in 2015 to the bribery and fraud charges, but fled the U.S. in 2022 leaving his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet in a water cooler just days before he was to be sentenced. The U.S. Marshals Service told CBS News Francis was detained on an Interpol red notice at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela while boarding a flight to Cuba.
He was returned to the U.S. last year as part of a large prisoner swap deal with Venezuela. Ten American detainees were released in the 2023 deal in exchange for the Biden administration freeing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was facing money laundering charges.
U.S. Marshals Service via AP
In a 2015 plea agreement, Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship servicing company in Southeast Asia, identified seven Navy officials who had accepted bribes and acknowledged paying off officials with hundreds of thousands in cash, as well as luxury goods worth millions.
He supplied them with prostitutes and Cuban cigars, luxury travel, Spanish suckling pigs and Kobe beef. Officials received spa treatments, top-shelf alcohol, designer handbags, leather goods, designer furniture, watches, fountain pens, ornamental swords and handmade ship models, according to court documents.
In exchange, officers gave him classified information and even redirected military vessels to lucrative ports for his Singapore-based ship servicing company. Francis, according to prosecutors, overcharged the U.S. military by $35 million for his company’s services.
Over 30 Navy officers and contractors have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges related to Francis’ services.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced Francis to a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.
“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in a statement. “The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”
Francis, 60, was initially arrested in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition, the Department of Justice said. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he escaped.
“Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders,” Kelly P. Mayo, the director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said in a news release on Tuesday.