A second man has been charged with stealing a pair of ruby pink slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard Of Oz.
The footwear had been recovered by the FBI in a 2018 sting operation – 13 years after they had been stolen from a museum within the late actress’s hometown.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, was charged with “theft of a serious art work” and witness tampering throughout a listening to at St Paul District Courtroom in St Paul, Minnesota. He didn’t enter a plea.
The footwear, which is adorned with sequins and glass beads, was taken from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, almost 20 years in the past.
They had been worn by her character, Dorothy, within the 1939 movie, and are value round $3.5m (£2.75m), in accordance with federal prosecutors.
The Wizard Of Oz. Pic: Bonhams
The indictment stated that from August 2005 to July 2018, Saliterman “acquired, hid, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage” – particularly, “an genuine pair of ‘ruby slippers’ worn by Judy Garland within the 1939 film”.
Prosecutors allege that Saliterman knew they had been stolen – and declare he threatened to launch a intercourse tape of a lady and “take her down with him” if she didn’t maintain her mouth shut concerning the slippers.
Saliterman, from Crystal in Minnesota, appeared in court docket in a wheelchair and with a supplemental oxygen gadget to assist his respiration. He declined to reporters after the listening to.
Nonetheless, his lawyer John Brink stated: “He isn’t responsible. He hasn’t completed something fallacious.”
Jerry Hal Saliterman was wheeled out of court docket on Friday. Pic: AP Photograph/Steve Karnowski
It comes after Terry Jon Martin, 76, who lived round 12 miles away from the museum, pleaded responsible to theft of a serious art work in relation to the case final October.
He admitted to utilizing a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and show case, in what his lawyer stated was an try to tug off “one final rating” after turning away from a lifetime of crime.
Martin was sentenced in January to time served, that means he was launched and averted additional time in jail due to his poor well being.
Throughout his listening to, Martin defined he had hoped to take what he thought had been actual rubies from the footwear and promote them – however removed them when came upon the “jewels” weren’t actual.
His defence lawyer, Dane DeKrey, stated Martin had no thought concerning the cultural significance of the slippers and had by no means seen The Wizard of Oz.
The court docket paperwork didn’t element any doable connection between Martin and Saliterman.
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The slippers are related to some of the well-known traces within the musical: “There isn’t any place like house”.
The footwear seemingly takes on magical powers when Dorothy utters the road 3 times and clicks her heels – serving to to move her again house to Kansas.
The footwear are one in every of simply 4 remaining pairs of pink slippers worn by Garland within the movie.
The opposite three pairs are held by the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American Historical past and a non-public collector.
Based on John Kelsh, the founding director of the museum from the place the slippers had been stolen, they’ve now been returned to their authentic proprietor – memorabilia collector Michael Shaw – and can later be offered at public sale.
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