News & Articles

Not the stolen ruby slippers, but another pair used in the film.

Dorothy’s stolen ruby slippers from the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz are on tour now, sponsored by Heritage Auction House of Dallas. The 35-day live auction will conclude on Dec. 7, with fans and admirers wondering will the closing price break the record for a top fetch on a piece of Hollywood memorabilia that has more crime provenance than any other movie prop in history?

Stolen in what has been called a “crash and grab” burglary from the small hometown Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids on Aug. 28, 2005, the sequined magic shoes of every child’s fantasy were not recovered until 2018 in an FBI sting operation in Minneapolis. There were no arrests, no charges and the mystery continued until 2023 when an elderly and ill man, Terry Jon Martin, 76, Grand Rapids, was indicted and then convicted for the theft. The story is still unfolding as a second man, also elderly and ill, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, Crystal, was indicted and awaits a trial in 2025. 

The shoes with all the secrets are making international stops – Tokyo, New York, Paris and beyond – before the gavel rests with a winning bid. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed off on a bill for a grant of $100,000 allocated to the Grand Rapids Judy Garland Museum in May. The seed money, under the Minnesota Legacy Fund, is the base for long range hope of the museum to secure a final bid and return the shoes “home” to the birthplace of Frances Ethel Gumm, aka Judy Garland. 

Frances “Baby” Ethel Gumm was born June 10, 1922, to vaudevillians Frank and Ethel Gumm, managers of a small movie theatre, New Grand, in Grand Rapids, Minn. It was the start of what would become an acclaimed career for a young girl with an amazing contralto voice that would thrill audiences far and beyond her early death in 1969. “Baby” – renamed Judy Garland by Louis B. Mayer – will eternally be remembered as star of the iconic 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. It was the film’s closing with the amazing power from within and a tap-tap-tap of those sensational ruby slippers that has to this day reminded children turned adults “There’s No Place Like Home.”

The “stolen ruby slippers,” one pair of the remaining four sets of shoes from the Oz stage set, have also been known as “the traveling shoes,” under the ownership of LA Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw. Prior to the 2005 theft of the ruby slippers, Shaw traveled extensively showcasing the sparkly props. He earned a bit of income while he delighted in bringing a piece of historic nostalgia to places across the U.S. He was generous with the Judy Garland Museum – returning the iconic slippers for visits to align with the annual Judy Garland summer festivals. The shoes were on their fourth visit to the small museum, which attaches to the original Gumm family home that had been relocated to the new museum site. 

Shaw had one request – he did not want anyone handling the shoes. He declined the museum director and security teams’ recommendation that the shoes be vaulted in the safe provided by an area bank at the end of each day. Shaw said he had been told the shoes were always under 24-hour electronic surveillance, wrongly assuming a live taping would be monitored and always recorded while the shoes were on exhibit. 

Scott Braith, the security contractor at the time, working for Security Access Control Systems, described the alleged crash and grab burglary as “the perfect storm.” Braith, who continues to be troubled by the events of the high-dollar theft stated, “I told them, I could not protect those shoes – not unvaulted, and not with a monitor-only security system.” 

Braith, who admires Judy Garland Museum co-foundeer and executive director John Kelsch and considers him a good friend, said he had been adamant when he recommended the shoes insured for a million dollars, needed to be securely vaulted with a full 24-hour recording system. Braith said the small museum was concerned about budget. 

The discovery
Kathe Johnson closed the museum like she always did after her Aug. 27 shift. She did her walk through and armed the alarm. She returned to work the next morning and noticed something unusual with the alarm system – the display panel read auxiliary instead of armed. 
Kathe started down the hallway, felt a breeze and saw broken glass. She said she knew what happened before she even saw the shoes missing – it was a gut punch. She immediately called Kelsch and exclaimed, “They’re gone.” 

The long-time museum employee said she can still feel the moment of dread arriving after the burglary. 
“We met with the Grand Rapids police,” Johnson said. “We were always surprised they didn’t do more investigation.” 

She thought it was odd that the main investigator never even asked to look through her car. 
Johnson never talked to any journalist until 2023. She said she was never subjected to any formal police interview or investigation. It wasn’t until this year, that FBI Special Agent Steve Noldin from the Duluth office met with her for what she said he described as a “tying up loose ends” interview. That interview came after this writer contacted the FBI and left a message citing concerns that no employees and keyholders other than Kelsch, had been contacted for investigation. 

Security consultant Scott Braith expressed concern that to this day the FBI has never contacted him to inquire about the security system, possible motion detector tampering, and the auxiliary reading that was in the alert panel that morning. Braith said he had never been told the museum had a custodial employee who came in after hours, often accompanied by her family, who assisted her with cleaning duties. He thinks that would have been something he should have been informed of. 

“The employees had difficulty in arming the system and this may have been the reason there was only one alarm code instead of codes assigned to each employee,” Braith explained. 
Braith said, “I think the cops surmised teens had stolen and destroyed the shoes, the shoes were insured, and no one really cared, even though many of us, felt the aftereffect of community speculation and finger-pointing that is was all an inside job.”

The traveling shoes were recovered by the FBI after retired Secret Service Agent Michael Insabella (1947-2022) functioned as a middleman to negotiate a deal for the ruby slippers return to the insurance holder, Merkel Insurance. Insabella’s son-in-law Jeff Keene II authored a book called Under the Rainbow that details the events of the shoes return from darkness to a brown bag carried by famed Minnesota criminal defense attorney Joe Friedberg (1937-2024) to a café counter for an exchange of payment for shoes. 

Unbeknownst to Friedberg. the FBI awaiting were to seize the stolen slippers. Joe was detained under suspicion of extortion and then released, and no arrests were made at the time of that July 2018 sting operation. 

Terry Martin and wife Marquis.

It wasn’t until May 2023 that a suspect was named and charged. Terry Jon Martin was federally indicted in U.S. District Court on one count of theft of major artwork. Martin, a resident who resides on Splithand Lake south of Grand Rapids, was unknown to Grand Rapids law enforcement. 

Retired police chief Scott Johnson, who was chief at the time of the 2018 ruby slippers recovery said, “Terry Martin was never a name on our radar.” 

Joe Friedberg in a colorful phone conversation also said, “I have never met Terry Martin and don’t know who he is.” Friedberg did acknowledge he long ago represented a friend of Terry Martin’s, Jerry Hal Saliterman, in an interstate case that involved alleged prostitution. 

Martin and Saliterman are lifelong friends who met as young adults and ran their careers in unison with one another – crime careers of theft, burglary, robbery, drugs, etc. that kept them housed in prisons off and on during three decades of their midlives. And together Terry and Jerry ran houses of prostitution, called “Rap Houses” back in the late 1970s between LaCrescent, Minnesota and LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 

Was it possible that Saliterman’s defense attorney did not know who Jerry’s business partner had been at the time? 

Terry had moved back to the Itasca County Northland in the late 1990s after his last stint in prison. He remained obscure while working construction jobs for his brother. He always loved the outdoors and resumed fishing with passion. He became close friends with another contest fisherman, a man whose wife worked as the custodian for the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids. Martin went unnoticed, a few minor infractions with driving while intoxicated (DWI) in 2000 and only a handful of folks knowing his long criminal history. 

So, it came on October, Friday the 13th, 2023, Terry Jon Martin, through a carefully crafted plea arrangement between the federal prosecutor and his smartly dressed defense attorney, provided testimony that he cased the museum on an earlier visit, he arrived at the museum by automobile, with him he carried a small sledgehammer which he used to break the rear [emergency] exit door. He stated he entered the building and broke the case containing the ruby slippers. He left, returned to his trailer and stored the shoes in an adjacent trailer on the property. He said he gave the shoes to a jewelry fence and never saw the shoes again. There was no mention of any accomplices. The statements were presented though no sequence was specified. Martin claimed he thought the shoes contained real rubies (they do not).

Martin received a downward departure based on his age, infirmities and the federal prosecutor’s belief that Martin was “gravely ill and expected to live less than six months.” 

The pre-sentencing investigation report (PSIR) revealed a few more details on Martin’s burglary and theft of the ruby slippers. Martin claimed he was “solely responsible” for the theft. The PSIR stated that Martin knew the museum alarm did not function, however there has never been any explanation as to how Martin came to know this piece of information that the public was not aware of. Martin knew the ruby slippers were insured for one million dollars. Martin, still residing at his home, is expected to testify at a future court hearing for the second person indicted in the federal crime, his long-time friend Jerry Hal Saliterman. 

Saliterman was indicted on two federal charges on March 13, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis for Theft of Major Artwork and Witness Tampering (threatening to expose a sex tape of a potential trial witness). 

Like the Martin case, federal prosecutors sought to have paperwork sealed and witness names withheld to the public under protective orders. A public search warrant served at the home of Jerry and Marie Saliterman by the Crystal Police Dept. on March 14, 2024, details a collection of valuable objects, artwork, crystal, high-end department store ware, booster jackets, walkie talkies and a thermal imaging camera that were confiscated. The warrant specifies that a “cooperating defendant” admitted to being involved in an organized retail theft crime ring with Saliterman for nearly two decades. The defendant stated they had observed the ruby red slippers in person, and “she” stated they asked Saliterman to anonymously return the slippers as the defendant did not want them in the home. 

According to the cooperating defendant, Saliterman placed the ruby red slippers into a clear plastic container and buried them in the yard for approximately seven years. The defendant stated that Saliterman and his associate attempted to remove their DNA from the slippers by placing them in an ultraviolet sanitizer cabinet. Saliterman then transferred the sanitizer cabinet to his daughter, who sold the item on Facebook Marketplace.

 Jerry Saliterman and his wife Marie are currently in the process of a divorce proceeding. Saliterman, like Martin, showed up at court in a wheelchair, on oxygen and appearing ill. He was released on condition until his January 2025 hearing. 

With one conviction in place, Merkel Insurance upon repayment of the pay-out made to Michael Shaw after the shoes were stolen, returned the shoes to Shaw (and a group of investors). A celebration kept secret and later disclosed by the FBI, Shaw was overjoyed as he was reunited with his shoes at the birthplace home of Judy Garland. Shaw and John Kelsch, finally free from what had been years under scrutiny by the public with secret whispers of an “inside job” – as the shoe owner and museum director were able to reconcile any misgivings. 

“It was a healing moment,” Kelsch said. 

Shaw and his investors enlisted Heritage Auctions – so came the announcement of a highly coveted Hollywood memorabilia auction. No shoes have ever held such power, an incredible magic – the magic to return a lost teen to her home and the power of secrets unknown, secrets centered on a nonfiction tale of crime, lust and greed. 

The Judy Garland Museum would like to see the shoes truly rest at “home” – the birthplace of Judy Garland, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Fundraising efforts have been fervent and creative with a hope of a successful final bid to bring the story full circle by bringing those coveted shoes home, to the hearts of a hometown that Judy declared she had nothing but fond memories of. 

As for the criminal case, the FBI remains mum and cites an active ongoing investigation, an investigation that never involved interviews with former employees and keyholders of the Judy Garland Museum at the time of the alleged “smash and grab” heist. Kathe Johnson and Scott Braith have recently questioned whether the “smash and grab” was staged and did it only happen after a person/s let themselves in – with a key. Only the Wizard knows. 

Pam Dowell is a freelance writer who has written a series of articles on Dorothy’s stolen Ruby Slippers. Her investigative material has been obtained through multiple interviews, records, trial attendance, newspaper archives and genealogy research. She plans to keep asking questions until the questions are answered.