1 00:00:02,300 --> 00:00:04,500 GEOFF BENNETT: If you have ever wanted to own a piece of Hollywood history, now's your chance. 2 00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:08,933 A pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers are up for auction. And just like Dorothy, 3 00:00:08,933 --> 00:00:13,400 this pair of shoes has been on its own long and very strange journey. 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,400 Special correspondent Megan Thompson explains for our arts and culture series, Canvas. 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,933 JUDY GARLAND, Actress: Too late. There they are and there they will stay. 6 00:00:22,933 --> 00:00:27,933 MEGAN THOMPSON: Dorothy's ruby slippers, some of the most iconic movie memorabilia of all time, 7 00:00:29,266 --> 00:00:32,466 worn by actor Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz." 8 00:00:32,466 --> 00:00:37,466 JOHN KELSCH, Curator, Judy Garland Museum: It's such a story of promise and hope. Frank Sinatra 9 00:00:39,433 --> 00:00:42,866 said, we will all be forgotten, all of us, but not Judy. And I think he was right on. 10 00:00:44,366 --> 00:00:47,033 MEGAN THOMPSON: John Kelsch has made preserving Garland's legacy 11 00:00:47,033 --> 00:00:51,466 his life's work as the curator of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, 12 00:00:51,466 --> 00:00:55,533 Minnesota, a small city three hours north of Minneapolis. 13 00:00:55,533 --> 00:00:58,933 JOHN KELSCH: Judy Garland's parents owned this House for seven years. 14 00:00:58,933 --> 00:01:02,133 MEGAN THOMPSON: Born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922, 15 00:01:02,133 --> 00:01:06,833 Garland lived here until she was 4 and got her start performing at a local theater. 16 00:01:06,833 --> 00:01:11,833 More than 10,000 fans make the trek each year to visit her childhood home and the museum. 17 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,300 JOHN KELSCH: The slippers were exhibited on top of this pedestal. 18 00:01:16,300 --> 00:01:19,200 MEGAN THOMPSON: Over the years, the museum displayed a pair of the famous 19 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:24,200 ruby slippers loaned from a Hollywood memorabilia collector named Michael Shaw. In August 2005, 20 00:01:26,133 --> 00:01:29,700 the slippers were at the museum for the fourth time when everything was shattered. 21 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:32,100 JOHN KELSCH: So he used a handheld sledgehammer. 22 00:01:32,100 --> 00:01:36,666 MEGAN THOMPSON: A thief in the night smashed the glass of a side door and walked right in. 23 00:01:36,666 --> 00:01:41,666 JOHN KELSCH: Creeped along this wall like that. We're a small-town museum. We had security, but 24 00:01:43,866 --> 00:01:47,400 there were many lapses. It was almost a perfect storm and you might say a comedy of errors. 25 00:01:48,900 --> 00:01:51,133 MEGAN THOMPSON: The door's alarm had been disabled because school 26 00:01:51,133 --> 00:01:56,100 children kept tripping it. There were no cameras recording, no motion detectors in the gallery. 27 00:01:57,933 --> 00:02:00,566 When Kelsch, museum director at the time, arrived the next morning: 28 00:02:00,566 --> 00:02:02,333 JOHN KELSCH: And I said, well, there's a sequin. 29 00:02:02,333 --> 00:02:05,466 MEGAN THOMPSON: All that was left was a single sequin on the floor. 30 00:02:05,466 --> 00:02:08,666 JOHN KELSCH: You just feel violated and trust is gone. 31 00:02:08,666 --> 00:02:13,666 And our credibility for borrowing other artifacts was destroyed. 32 00:02:15,566 --> 00:02:17,566 PAM DOWELL, Freelance Writer: When you think of "The Wizard of Oz" and the 33 00:02:17,566 --> 00:02:20,733 magic of "The Wizard of Oz," they're going into this far-off fantasy land and they're 34 00:02:20,733 --> 00:02:25,733 meeting these weird people. That's what these shoes did in real life in the criminal caper. 35 00:02:27,233 --> 00:02:29,033 MEGAN THOMPSON: Pam Dowell is a freelance writer in Grand 36 00:02:29,033 --> 00:02:31,733 Rapids who covered the crime for the local papers. 37 00:02:31,733 --> 00:02:34,166 PAM DOWELL: I was making phone calls to everybody. 38 00:02:34,166 --> 00:02:38,833 MEGAN THOMPSON: As the years went by and the case went cold, rumors swirled. Was it local kids, 39 00:02:40,500 --> 00:02:43,933 an unscrupulous fan, the shoe's owner looking for an insurance payout? 40 00:02:43,933 --> 00:02:48,066 PAM DOWELL: Inside job because it just seemed like there were too many things 41 00:02:48,066 --> 00:02:53,033 that went awry that night. So there were lots of different speculations. 42 00:02:54,733 --> 00:02:56,666 BRIAN MANSON, Grand Rapids Police Department: Ruby slippers. 43 00:02:56,666 --> 00:02:58,266 MEGAN THOMPSON: Brian Manson (ph) is an investigator with the Grand Rapids 44 00:02:58,266 --> 00:03:00,566 Police Department, who chased several ruby slipper leads. 45 00:03:00,566 --> 00:03:02,433 BRIAN MANSON: And, all of a sudden, he's like, you're not going to believe it. 46 00:03:02,433 --> 00:03:04,433 MEGAN THOMPSON: Once staking out a house in the woods, 47 00:03:04,433 --> 00:03:08,233 where he found this pair of high heels covered in glitter. 48 00:03:08,233 --> 00:03:11,333 BRIAN MANSON: I see it says "Made in China." So I was kind of mad. 49 00:03:11,333 --> 00:03:15,400 MEGAN THOMPSON: But another lead that Manson worked ended up cracking the case. 50 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:20,400 In 2018, 13 years after the heist, the shoes were recovered during an FBI sting operation 51 00:03:22,366 --> 00:03:26,933 in Minneapolis. But the first indictment wouldn't come for five more years. So who 52 00:03:28,966 --> 00:03:32,600 were the alleged criminal masterminds that eluded the law for almost two decades? Two 53 00:03:34,366 --> 00:03:37,400 buddies named Terry and Jerry, career criminals who decided to team up for 54 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,700 one last score, both in ill health by the time they showed up to court. 55 00:03:41,700 --> 00:03:45,433 PAM DOWELL: Got now these two older guys, kind of crusty, 56 00:03:45,433 --> 00:03:50,433 little buggers. It doesn't it doesn't fit the story of what we have speculated on. 57 00:03:53,033 --> 00:03:55,433 MEGAN THOMPSON: Terry Martin, who lives in Grand Rapids, 58 00:03:55,433 --> 00:03:59,733 claimed in court he mistakenly thought the shoes were made of real rubies. 59 00:03:59,733 --> 00:04:04,700 PAM DOWELL: I believe that they got something that was too hot to move. And they were very 60 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:10,700 specific. They were identifiable. So then they had to sit on them. 61 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:12,966 MEGAN THOMPSON: And so the slippers sat, 62 00:04:12,966 --> 00:04:17,400 allegedly in Jerry Saliterman's backyard near Minneapolis, buried for years in a plastic box. 63 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:21,233 RYAN LINTELMAN, Smithsonian Institution: I think that clearly the ruby slippers 64 00:04:21,233 --> 00:04:25,333 are among the most iconic and valuable piece of movie memorabilia. 65 00:04:25,333 --> 00:04:28,500 MEGAN THOMPSON: Ryan Lintelman is the curator of the Entertainment Collection at 66 00:04:28,500 --> 00:04:33,500 the National Museum of American History, where the FBI brought the shoes for authentication. 67 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:38,433 Lintelman's team compared them to another pair of ruby slippers the museum owns. 68 00:04:38,433 --> 00:04:42,866 RYAN LINTELMAN: And the real smoking gun was a missing stone from one of the bows that had 69 00:04:42,866 --> 00:04:47,600 been replaced during production with a clear stone that was painted red, a detail that had never been 70 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:52,433 published about the ruby slippers before. Not even the most skilled forger would know to do that. 71 00:04:52,433 --> 00:04:57,100 MEGAN THOMPSON: Lintelman says the Smithsonian slippers, one of four pairs known to exist, 72 00:04:57,100 --> 00:05:02,100 are one of its most popular items, seen by more than 100 million people over the years. 73 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,800 RYAN LINTELMAN: I think people bring a lot of personal memories and love of Hollywood film. 74 00:05:08,966 --> 00:05:10,766 ACTRESS: Follow the yellow brick road. 75 00:05:10,766 --> 00:05:13,266 RYAN LINTELMAN: But I think they also bring this sort of interest in 76 00:05:13,266 --> 00:05:16,500 Dorothy's journey and the way that that's played out in their lives. 77 00:05:16,500 --> 00:05:20,133 MEGAN THOMPSON: In March, the stolen pair were reunited with their owner, 78 00:05:20,133 --> 00:05:24,133 Michael Shaw, who decided to put them up for auction. 79 00:05:24,133 --> 00:05:26,300 JANIE HEITZ, Executive Director, Judy Garland Museum: This is Judy. 80 00:05:26,300 --> 00:05:29,700 MEGAN THOMPSON: Janie Heitz, the current executive director of the Judy Garland Museum, 81 00:05:29,700 --> 00:05:34,700 is raising money to make a bid, saying for the ruby slippers, there's no place like home. 82 00:05:36,833 --> 00:05:40,666 JANIE HEITZ: Having a pair of ruby slippers in her hometown, where she was happy as a child, 83 00:05:42,566 --> 00:05:45,300 would be a good Hollywood happy ending to this saga of the ruby slippers. 84 00:05:45,300 --> 00:05:50,300 MEGAN THOMPSON: The slippers are estimated to be worth more than $3 million, and online bidding, 85 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:54,500 which started on November 1, is already nearing $1 million. 86 00:05:54,500 --> 00:05:58,166 JANIE HEITZ: It's definitely an uphill battle, but dreams really do come true. 87 00:05:58,166 --> 00:06:02,100 MEGAN THOMPSON: The museum is accepting donations in person and on its Web site, 88 00:06:02,100 --> 00:06:07,100 and Heitz is approaching big-dollar donors across the country. The state of Minnesota 89 00:06:09,166 --> 00:06:12,233 has even pledged $100,000, with Governor Tim Walz promising 24/7 "Oceans 11"-proof security. 90 00:06:15,733 --> 00:06:20,733 ACTRESS: Tap your heels together three times. 91 00:06:22,933 --> 00:06:25,800 JOHN KELSCH: They have a power that is mythical. Even if we aren't successful at the auction, 92 00:06:29,233 --> 00:06:33,433 perhaps someone will donate them someday. We could be surprised. 93 00:06:33,433 --> 00:06:38,433 MEGAN THOMPSON: Bidding for the ruby slippers will end at a live auction in Dallas on December 7. 94 00:06:40,133 --> 00:06:44,433 For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Megan Thompson in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.