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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: So we went around iHeart Security and we broke into

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Speaker 2: the building. You can't stop, you know, But what happens

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Speaker 2: if they find us?

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Speaker 3: Oh prob I shouldn't record this part then huh crap,

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Speaker 3: that's too late.

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Speaker 2: It's oh whatever, Well, because we have to do this

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Speaker 2: by ourselves.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll say this is an act.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is all a big joke.

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Speaker 3: Didn't happen.

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Speaker 2: So you probably remember that we aired an episode on

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Speaker 2: June twenty ninth, twenty three called Slip Sliding Away the

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Speaker 2: theft of Judy Garland's ruby slippers. Oh hell yeah, right,

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Speaker 2: what fun time we had that you weren't even there.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't just laughing.

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Speaker 2: It was great. So the story it wrapped up with

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Speaker 2: the latest development at the time when I told producer

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Speaker 2: Dave about it. On Tuesday May fifteenth, twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 2: this seventy six year old dude in Minnesota named Terry Martin.

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Speaker 2: He got indicted for one count of theft of a

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Speaker 2: major artwork in the shoes.

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Speaker 3: That's cool.

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Speaker 2: So that was you know, that's how I closed it out,

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Speaker 2: and that you know, the slippers that, of course, were

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Speaker 2: stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, August

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Speaker 2: twenty eight, two thousand and five.

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Speaker 3: We need to get our tickets, Oh.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, So the ones that were recovered Interesting Operation, Minnesota,

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Speaker 2: September two thousand and nine. So, for whatever reason, twenty

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Speaker 2: two years after the heist, fourteen years after the slippers

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Speaker 2: were recovered, Old Terry gets busted. And you know, he

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Speaker 2: pleaded guilty to the heist five months after his indictment

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Speaker 2: October twenty twenty three. He showed up for sentencing in

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Speaker 2: January twenty twenty four in a wheelchair and on supplementary oxygen.

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Speaker 2: Judge took pity on him and he was sentenced to

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Speaker 2: time served. They're like, you know, your life is hellish enough.

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Speaker 2: And he had a long history of burglary and receiving

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Speaker 2: stolen property. So his attorney, this guy Dane Decraye. He's

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Speaker 2: lawyer Decraye, Dane of the Craze. Uh so he he

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Speaker 2: was like, Terry was trying to just pull off one

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Speaker 2: last score.

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Speaker 3: I do declare I'm Dane de Crag so I'm still

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Speaker 3: hung up on.

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Speaker 2: That de cray Z. So Terry, he was like guys

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Speaker 2: trying to just pull off one last score. And he

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Speaker 2: uses the phrase one last score after an old buddy

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Speaker 2: his with mob ties told him where the shoes were,

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Speaker 2: and then that the mob guy was like, Terry, all

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Speaker 2: that sparkle on the shoes, that's from real jewels. Terry

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Speaker 2: believed him, the mob aphiliate guy, He's like, that's why

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Speaker 2: they're so valuable, taby, Terry's like a lot. And so,

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Speaker 2: you know, neither of these guys understood the precious nature

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Speaker 2: of nostalgia or cultural currency, or fame or sentiment. So

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Speaker 2: Terry took the shoes so like took him to his

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Speaker 2: fence zing and then fence broke it to Terry that

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Speaker 2: the rubies were actually glass. So Terry rid himself.

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Speaker 3: Of the slippers. Did he explain the value of Judy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he broke out into song and yeah, it was

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Speaker 2: it was beautiful.

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Speaker 3: This is where the value comes.

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Speaker 2: He was like, hold on a second, clang clang clang. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: So Terry got rid of those slippers. But his attorney

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Speaker 2: was like, I'm not going to tell you how, why, where, when? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but that's not the end. So December seventh is a

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Speaker 2: day that will live in infamy. Saren not just because

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Speaker 2: it's the day that our nation came under attack in

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty one, kicking off our involvement in World War two.

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Speaker 3: Ah, yes, bro Harbor.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just this year, December seventh, twenty twenty four. Uh huh,

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Speaker 2: those iconic ruby slippers sold at auction. Really, Heritage Auctions

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Speaker 2: was running things. They figured the slippers would get about

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Speaker 2: three million at auction.

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Speaker 3: Three million.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Online bidding opened in November of twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 3: All right, online bidding, I missed my window.

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Speaker 2: Go on, you totally did. The top bid hung at

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Speaker 2: about like one point five to five million before live

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Speaker 2: bidding began on the afternoon of December seventh. Right, so

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Speaker 2: within minutes, the top bid was almost ten million dollars.

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Speaker 2: What Yeah, more than triple the estimated final bid.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I was just doing that matter right, I could

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Speaker 3: do it.

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Speaker 2: So the phone bids, they're coming in fast. The callers

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Speaker 2: are one upping each other. It's climbing. It's like sane, yeah,

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Speaker 2: really quickly. For fifteen minutes. When all was sudden done,

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Speaker 2: the winning bid emerged twenty eight million dollars. Whoa for

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Speaker 2: a pair of busted up slippers.

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Speaker 3: That's the value of Judy Garland.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and then you factor in the auction house's

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Speaker 2: feet final bill thirty two point five million dollars.

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Speaker 3: Could you help me pick my job back up?

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Speaker 2: Auction house is making bank house. We totally do. Who

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Speaker 2: was the winning bidder?

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Speaker 3: Who was Elizabeth?

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Speaker 2: None other than Elon Musk.

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Speaker 3: Are you kidding?

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Speaker 2: I'm totally kidding.

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Speaker 3: Ah, thank you.

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Speaker 2: The shoes were his size. Now the actual winner.

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Speaker 3: iHeart he was going to send him into Mars. He

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Speaker 3: was right at the plan.

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Speaker 2: Iheartradiown nice as a holiday gift for us.

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Speaker 3: You are all still kidding.

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Speaker 2: I have one hundred percent kidding. The buyer wanted to

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Speaker 2: remain anonymous. Oh that update out of the way. Let's

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Speaker 2: take a trip down the yellow brick memory lane and

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Speaker 2: listen to me show exactly why I'm universally known as

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Speaker 2: America's sweetheart and captivate you with the tale of the

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Speaker 2: stolen Ruby Slippers. David City, Elizabeth Dunton, Hey, how Dave?

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Speaker 2: The others? Aaron? How are you today?

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Speaker 4: I'm all right, I'm sweating a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Good, okay, same. You know it's ridiculous, I do, Oh

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Speaker 2: you do?

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Speaker 4: Do you know anything about how crazy McDonald Land is.

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Speaker 2: No, it's like McDonald land in actual place or like

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Speaker 2: the fictional universe of it.

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Speaker 4: Like imagine you know the origins of where McDonald land

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Speaker 4: came from.

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Speaker 2: Okay, No, I don't know anything about this.

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Speaker 4: Well, first, it comes out of Willard Scott's work as

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Speaker 4: Boza the Clown. He's the original Ron McDonald right right.

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Speaker 4: And McDonald's goes to an ad agency. Of course, this

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Speaker 4: was like it used to be. It's now DDB. It

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Speaker 4: used to be Needham, Harper and Steers. They're like, hey,

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Speaker 4: can you make us like a whole thing out of this,

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Speaker 4: just like do a whole thing. Yeah, and they're like, okay.

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Speaker 4: So the first commercial comes in nineteen seventy one and

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Speaker 4: at this time, you know the purple dude Grimace. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: back then his name, his official government name is Evil Grimace.

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Speaker 2: Oh you're kidding me.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So they're like, we need a land, a mythical, mystical

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Speaker 2: land surrounding our Hammurgers. Let's have an evil character.

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Speaker 4: Involved, not just one, there's like multiple the Hamburglar and

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Speaker 4: you've got Captain Crook at the time, who you know,

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Speaker 4: like you can't miss the name all their whole thing

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Speaker 4: is all like shoplifting, and Ronald stops them from shoplifting,

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Speaker 4: and so that's supposed to get you into the restaurants.

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Speaker 2: Okay, running from shoplifters.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I don't know, Like, are you like, oh

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Speaker 4: that that must be in high demand because people keep

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Speaker 4: five fingering all their food. But like, just to give

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Speaker 4: you a sense of how weird the whole thing was

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Speaker 4: in seventy one. In seventy three, Sid and marty Croft,

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Speaker 4: those of you know hr puff and stuff, and like

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Speaker 4: Siden marty Croft's World of was like World of Puppets

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Speaker 4: in Atlanta, which was before CNN Center was CNN Center

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Speaker 4: was in that building. Anyway, they did some real trippy stuff, right.

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Speaker 4: They sued McDonald's successfully. They got a fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 4: settlement and then it was appealed and they got a

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Speaker 4: million dollar settlement from McDonald because the McDonald's stuff looked

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Speaker 4: too much like the Croft's hr puffin stuff.

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Speaker 3: Weird stuff.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I had no idea.

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Speaker 4: But that's not the only weird thing.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 4: Oh, so Evil Grimace. Much later people are trying to

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Speaker 4: find out like, hey, what is Grimace? Right? This has

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Speaker 4: been like even before the Internet. There was lore of, like, well,

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Speaker 4: what the hell is Grimace?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, the gum drop.

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Speaker 4: As far as we can tell from official McDonald's spokesperson

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Speaker 4: Official McDonald's Twitter account, they said, quote, Uh, are you

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Speaker 4: ready for this?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm totally ready.

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Speaker 4: Grimace Lare says he is the embodiment of a milkshake

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Speaker 4: or a taste bud.

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Speaker 2: Oh, grim is a taste bun.

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Speaker 4: How gross is that?

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Speaker 2: That's so disgusting? But is there a bunch of Grimace

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Speaker 2: stuff out now? Like?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he's hitting it big now for some reason?

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Speaker 2: Is there a shake? Is there a Grimace Shake?

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Speaker 4: Well, Grimace's uncle, Grimsumple's name is O Grimacy. Uh, and

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Speaker 4: he's the one promoting the Shamrock Shake.

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Speaker 2: This is Irish slander over here.

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Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if, like, is is O Grimacy

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Speaker 4: like a bad taste bud? And that's why he's promoting

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Speaker 4: the Shamrock shake and Grimace is like a pretty good

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Speaker 4: taste bud.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you're drinking a Grimace shake? Is

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Speaker 2: there a Grimace Shake? Why do I feel like there is?

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Speaker 2: I keep thinking I see this stuff on social media.

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Speaker 4: Twenty twenty one, This is the Shamrock the grimacy shake.

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Speaker 2: So it's basically liquefied taste buds, is what you're trying

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Speaker 2: to say to me, David.

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Speaker 4: Well, what freaks me out is like, imagine you're a

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Speaker 4: little kid and you're just going to hug this big

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Speaker 4: purple thing and it's a taste bud, like.

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Speaker 2: You taste saliva on someone's tongue. Yeah, because then is

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Speaker 2: this just an independent taste bud or an invisible tongue.

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Speaker 4: It leaves a lot of questions.

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Speaker 2: I have a lot of questions about the McDonald's universe.

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Speaker 2: But that is ridiculous, pretty ridiculous, Right, that's ridiculous. You

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Speaker 2: want to know what else is ridiculous? I would stealing

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Speaker 2: sequined shoes. Ooh, this is ridiculous. Crime A podcast about

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Speaker 2: absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always ninety

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Speaker 2: nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 4: That's fact check.

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Speaker 2: Totally, Dave. You've seen the movie The Wizard of Oz, right.

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Speaker 4: Uh, yeah, and I've seen the Whiz so sure.

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Speaker 2: But like Wizard of Oz, the original came out in

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, it was still really popular when I

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Speaker 2: was a kid.

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Speaker 4: Originally in black and white right, and they had to

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Speaker 4: colorize it later.

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Speaker 2: That's part of the whole thing in the film is that,

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Speaker 2: like when she goes to, oh yeah, the other side,

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Speaker 2: it's color right. So but it was like a spectacular

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Speaker 2: it was. It was incredible, Like it used to come

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Speaker 2: on TV once a year and like I'd get all excited.

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Speaker 2: I don't think young people these days are as familiar

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Speaker 2: with Wizard of Oz.

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Speaker 4: They could just tell him the creepy urban myth, yeah right,

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Speaker 4: that would get them.

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Speaker 2: Well, So here, I think cable pushed the Wizard of

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Speaker 2: Oz out of the mainstream. That's my theory because like

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Speaker 2: in my house, we were really really late adopters of cable,

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Speaker 2: so we were still relying on like network movies. But

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Speaker 2: I feel like it kind of fell off sometime, like

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Speaker 2: I don't know, in the nineties. It's just it's just

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Speaker 2: it's it's not just me. Our researcher Andrea. She mentioned

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Speaker 2: it too that kids these days don't seem to know

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Speaker 2: the media that like we or our parents or our

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Speaker 2: grandparents knew. Like the Internet gives us too much choice,

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Speaker 2: is what she was. She was thinking kind.

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Speaker 4: Of like when when I was little and we finally

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Speaker 4: got HBO, and they showed Savannah smiles over and over

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Speaker 4: and over again. I don't know why it's not a

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Speaker 4: good movie. I think it's like one of the O'Neills

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Speaker 4: or something. But yeah, I hear it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it just it murders it. So we don't do

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Speaker 2: murder here. Zaren. He actually talks about this sometimes that

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Speaker 2: like each generation seems to have a shorter and shorter

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Speaker 2: range of historical or cultural knowledge. So keeping that in

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Speaker 2: mind anyway. The Wizard of Oz the movie is based

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Speaker 2: on a book by L. Frank Baum called The Wonderful

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Speaker 2: Wizard of Oz and that was written in nineteen hundred

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Speaker 2: and In the movie, Dorothy Gale lives in Kansas with

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Speaker 2: her aunt and uncle. Some ladygoon in town wants to

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Speaker 2: have Dorothy's dog, Toto put down, and it's a cairen terrier.

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Speaker 2: And I can tell you that they are an acquired taste.

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Speaker 4: Did you say, did you say a carring terrier.

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Speaker 2: A cairen like c A I R N.

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Speaker 4: Got it.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so it's of Scottish origin, a terrier. Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 2: and they're just nasty little dogs for the most part.

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Speaker 2: But Toto, he didn't deserve a visit to the executioner.

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Speaker 2: My mom had a car and terrier named Finn, who

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Speaker 2: could be such a jerk but then super sweet. And

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Speaker 2: I have a scar on my shin from where he

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Speaker 2: bit me once, but I probably deserved it anyway.

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Speaker 4: That's how I feel about my dog bites too, Right.

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Speaker 2: You're like, I pushed the wrong buttons. So Dorothy, she

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Speaker 2: legs it with Toto and gets caught in a tornado,

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Speaker 2: wakes up in the Land of Oz. Her house landed

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Speaker 2: on one of the batties, the Wicked Witch of the East,

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Speaker 2: and then Dorothy helps herself to the witch's red ruby

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Speaker 2: slippers heads off to get help returning home from the

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Speaker 2: Great oz Over in Emerald City. So that's just brief recap.

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Speaker 2: The slippers are the key to her being able to

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Speaker 2: get home. She has to tap her heels together three

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Speaker 2: times and say, there's no place like him. You remember that, Rainelle.

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Speaker 4: It was always a little confusing because like the ruby slippers,

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Speaker 4: but she's they got heels right.

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Speaker 2: They got heels, ye, yeah, yeah, they're like little you know,

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Speaker 2: sensible pumps. Uh. So the next thing you know, she's

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Speaker 2: back home and everyone's like chuckling about her bunked out

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Speaker 2: dream and we don't know if the sheriff has lifted

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Speaker 2: the bounty on Toto's head. The movie gave us the

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Speaker 2: song over the Rainbow that won an Oscar for Best

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Speaker 2: Original Song on Hollywood's Biggest Night. I've got a totally

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Speaker 2: unpopular opinion. I can't stand that Hawaiian guys version of

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Speaker 2: oh yeah yeah, that makes me want to commit crimes anyway.

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Speaker 2: The slippers, the sensible pumps, the kitten heels, they're iconic, iconic.

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Speaker 2: In the book, they's silver, though, but MGM changed the

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Speaker 2: color of the Magical slippers to ruby red, and this

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Speaker 2: would have a much more visual impact on film because

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Speaker 2: color film was really rare when the movie came out

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Speaker 2: in thirty nine. And the color in the movie is,

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Speaker 2: like I said, a key part of the plot. So

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Speaker 2: in the screenplay you can actually see where the writer

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Speaker 2: crossed out silver and wrote ruby. Oh wow, yeah, these

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Speaker 2: shoes they're covered in glittering red sequins. They're fabulous.

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Speaker 4: It's kind of like the last time when a technical

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Speaker 4: innovation will actually like meaningfully be used in a movie

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Speaker 4: instead of meaninglessly like Jaws three D when they're like, oh,

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Speaker 4: we just got to throw things at the screen.

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Speaker 2: D well, I mean I must. It must be sort

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Speaker 2: of like the bullet time and the matrix, like all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden it was everywhere, but then you'd never

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Speaker 2: seen it before and it's so crazy. Yeah, yeah, okay,

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Speaker 2: so we have like the yeah, this changeover to color,

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Speaker 2: these iconic fabulous shoes. Who was the iconic woman who

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Speaker 2: wore the iconic slippers? Miss Judy garlandg mother of Liza

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Speaker 2: Minelli so Garland. She was born Francis Ethel Gumm in

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Speaker 2: Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in nineteen twenty two. Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Timbertown,

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Speaker 2: population seventy seven hundred. Do you know who else was

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Speaker 2: from Grand Rapids, Minnesota? Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward Clever

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Speaker 2: on Leave It to Beaver. Okay, so in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,

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Speaker 2: there's the Judy Garland Museum. I don't believe there's a

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Speaker 2: Hugh Beaumont museum.

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Speaker 4: What about it in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In case people

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Speaker 4: get confused, I keep saying, does that two museums?

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Speaker 2: I kept typing out Grand Rapids Minnesota. So anyway, we

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Speaker 2: know when I was little and I would watch reruns

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Speaker 2: of Leave It to Beaver, you know, come home after

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Speaker 2: school and they got all these reruns on. I thought

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Speaker 2: his name was Hubo Mont.

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Speaker 4: That's a better name.

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Speaker 2: I was a very smart child. So Judy Garland Museum.

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Speaker 2: It opened in nineteen seventy five. It describes itself veusly quote.

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Speaker 2: The Judy Garland Museum is home to an eclectic Judy

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Speaker 2: Garland and Wizard of Oz collect Judy's nineteen twenties restored

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Speaker 2: birthplace home the Children's Discovery Museum on two acres of

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Speaker 2: Minnesota beauty. The museum hosts thoughtfully curated exhibits and artifacts,

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Speaker 2: including the original carriage featured in The Wizard of Oz,

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Speaker 2: a Dorothy Gale test dress worn by Judy Garland, and

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Speaker 2: many personal Judy Garland items collected over the last forty years.

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Speaker 2: Don't forget to take home a souvenir at the museum store.

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Speaker 4: Old Q tips and.

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Speaker 2: Collected. It makes it sound like they snuck into her trash.

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Speaker 2: And So Judy Garland died, though I hate to say

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Speaker 2: June twenty second, nineteen sixty nine, a man named Michael Shaw.

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Speaker 2: He bought those ruby slippers in nineteen seventy, a year

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Speaker 2: after she died from costumer Kent Warner. So Michael Shaw

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Speaker 2: buys them. Who is Michael Shaw. I'm glad you asked that.

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Speaker 2: He's an acting coach. He's also the voice of Kit

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Speaker 2: of night Rider.

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Speaker 3: But on the on the show, not.

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Speaker 2: On the show, just for the Universal Studios to her,

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Speaker 2: so they couldn't get the same person, so they had

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Speaker 2: they have Michael Shaw to it. He was a child

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Speaker 2: actor at MGM and he played one of the kids

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Speaker 2: in the Halloween scene and Meet Me in Saint Louis,

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Speaker 2: another Judy Garland film. So when traveling to conferences, he

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Speaker 2: would share stories with the audience about his time as

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Speaker 2: a child during the Golden Age of Hollywood, sitting on

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Speaker 2: Judy Garland's lap. Yes, David over there, Yes, I can

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Speaker 2: take this question.

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Speaker 4: Would he do it in the sound of Kit Kit.

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Speaker 4: I'll take your question, Michael Judy Garland it.

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Speaker 2: I would hope that he would. I'd be disappointed. But

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Speaker 2: so he's talking about Golden Age Hollywood. He's like sitting

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Speaker 2: on Judy Garland's lap. They watch movies together. She's super

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Speaker 2: nice to all the kids. She's like, you know, takes

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Speaker 2: care of them all. And so Michael Shaw. He's also

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Speaker 2: an avid collector of film memorabilia. He owns a gown

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Speaker 2: from the nineteen thirty eight film Marie Antoinette, Bet you

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Speaker 2: didn't know that? And the Golden Calf and tablets from

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Speaker 2: Cecil B. De mills nineteen fifty six film The Ten Commandments.

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Speaker 4: Wow, I wonder if they're like they look gold at all,

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Speaker 4: or if they're right.

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Speaker 2: It's just all like like beige color. Now, yes, Hollywood,

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Speaker 2: he collects all this stuff. I don't know if it's

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Speaker 2: on display and a home. He refuses, Shaw, it's over

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Speaker 2: his kitchen table. He's got the above, the fireplace is

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Speaker 2: the is the Golden calf, and then the kitchen table

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Speaker 2: has it you know with like it says like gather

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Speaker 2: and then.

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Speaker 4: The shell command in this house thou shalt not.

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Speaker 2: So in this house. We watched The Ten Commandments. He

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Speaker 2: didn't He didn't want to tell anyone how much he

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Speaker 2: paid Kent Warner for the Ruby slippers. Quote. I never

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Speaker 2: talk about prices. Okay, okay, it's good for you. However,

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Speaker 2: there were reports that he he paid twenty five hundred

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Speaker 2: dollars for the Ruby slippers. So keep that, keep that ballpark. Okay,

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Speaker 2: that's good change. And we're talking about yeah, yeah, So

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Speaker 2: Shaw thought of himself as a sort of protector of

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Speaker 2: the slippers and an ambassador to Judy Garland's legacy.

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Speaker 3: Quote.

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Speaker 2: I have been given the respectibility of taking care of

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Speaker 2: this pair of shoes, and I'd like to think that

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Speaker 2: Judy is looking down smiling, knowing that her famous pumps

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Speaker 2: are being used for such good causes.

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Speaker 4: I like theop kids.

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Speaker 2: Oh totally, so Shaw, He tells this story so many

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Speaker 2: times over the years. This the story I'm going to

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Speaker 2: tell you right now. You ready. He said that he

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Speaker 2: found out at a friend of his was battling aids

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Speaker 2: at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. And this is

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Speaker 2: this is like in the early days of the epidemic,

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Speaker 2: when people thought that they could get it from just

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Speaker 2: like shaking hands. The stigma's incredible. Yeah. So Shaw, he

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Speaker 2: brings the ruby slippers to this friend's room. He rests

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Speaker 2: the slippers on his friend's chest, and the man goes

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Speaker 2: from absolutely just like terrible anguish and pain to just

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Speaker 2: overcome with joy. And then the friend died a few

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Speaker 2: hours later. That friend, according to Shaw, was Kent Warner,

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Speaker 2: the costumer and former owner of the slippers. Oh wow,

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Speaker 2: So this was like he would tell this to show

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Speaker 2: how important ruby slippers are to people, like I said

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Speaker 2: icon Nick. When he was working as a Hollywood costumer,

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Speaker 2: Kent Warner found three pairs of prop shoes as well

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Speaker 2: as an off screen test pair of ruby slippers, just

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Speaker 2: you know, in a warehouse season there, oh crap. MGM

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Speaker 2: was getting ready to auction off pieces in costumes like

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Speaker 2: from old movies. So Shaw picks up the slippers as

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Speaker 2: well as Dorothy's Gingham dress, Munchkin costume, and the Wicked

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Speaker 2: Witch of the West hat and her broomstick. He just

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Speaker 2: like gets all the good stuff.

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Speaker 4: That's a haul.

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Speaker 2: And so then he sold a pair of the test

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Speaker 2: slippers to that they were the ones that weren't worn

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Speaker 2: in the film. He sells into Debbie Reynolds for three

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Speaker 2: hundred bucks bargain.

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Speaker 4: She got a deal. Yeah she was a friendly right.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, there were piles. So then he was

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Speaker 2: going to sell another pair to Reynolds. She wanted to

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Speaker 2: open her own Hollywood memorabilia museum, and like she had

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Speaker 2: an assistant who was there who was helping her with this.

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Speaker 2: So the assistant bought the ruby slippers but kept them

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Speaker 2: for himself. Who was that assistant? Michael Shaw voice of

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Speaker 2: Kit at Universal Studios. Tim Gearing of the Minnesota Monthly

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Speaker 2: wrote this really good article about this whole escapade. In it,

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Speaker 2: he writes, quote and by all accounts he Warner remained

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Speaker 2: furious with Shaw right up to his death because he'd

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Speaker 2: intended for the slippers to go to Debbie Reynolds. So

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Speaker 2: Michael Shaw made up that whole story about visiting Warner

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Speaker 2: in the hospital. Oh, it's terrible. That's terrible because apparently

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Speaker 2: Warner hated him. There's no way he did this. Everyone's like,

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Speaker 2: there's absolutely no way. You know, if he visited him

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Speaker 2: on his deathbed, then I'm a flying monkey, says one insider.

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Speaker 2: I don't know who that is. So anyway, we have

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Speaker 2: this like this character Shaw, who's got, you know, gotten

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Speaker 2: his hands on these things. And I'm not so sure

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Speaker 2: it was in the best means. Let's take a break.

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Speaker 2: When we come back, I'm going to tell you a

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Speaker 2: little bit more about these slippers. All right, So Michael

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Speaker 2: Shaw got the ruby slippers supposed to go to Wie Reynolds.

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Speaker 2: Didn't happen. Warner, though, the costumer, he kept a pair

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Speaker 2: of ruby slippers for himself, and then he gave a

435
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 2: pair away to an auctioneer, and he told the auctioneer,

436
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:29,440
Speaker 2: these are the only pair of slippers that exist. So,

437
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 2: you know, everyone's kind of telling stories around here. They

438
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 2: had this multi day auction at MGM where they filmed

439
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,639
Speaker 2: The Wizard of Oz. There was another auction that was

440
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,639
Speaker 2: like marking the end of the glory days of old Hollywood,

441
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 2: and it was described as a giant eighteen day wake

442
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,639
Speaker 2: for Hollywood in the nineteen eighty nine book The Ruby

443
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 2: Slippers of Oz. So the ruby slippers that went to

444
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 2: auction were apparently the star of the show and they

445
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:57,879
Speaker 2: sold for fifteen thousand dollars. Good appreciation on that.

446
00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 4: Any way, these are the backups or these are the actual.

447
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 2: These are the backups that he told the auctioneer were

448
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 2: the only parent existence. But there are a couple other

449
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:11,640
Speaker 2: pairs floating around. So the auction ends, a Memphis resident

450
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 2: comes forward to reporters and tells them, guess what I

451
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 2: won the authentic ruby slippers in a contest in nineteen

452
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 2: forty And then they start putting it all together. There

453
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,359
Speaker 2: weren't just one pair of ruby slippers. There's a bunch

454
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 2: of them. So over time, all these people that are

455
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 2: trying to tabulate it up. It turns out that there

456
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 2: are four on screen pairs and one off screen test pair.

457
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,280
Speaker 2: Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, quote,

458
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 2: these shoes are the holy grail of all Hollywood memorabilia.

459
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 2: There isn't anything else that does more to evoke the

460
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:46,000
Speaker 2: power of belief.

461
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 4: I wonder if that's still true.

462
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 2: I doubt probably not. So Shaw told this guy quote,

463
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 2: the shoes themselves are worthless. It's what they are and

464
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 2: what they represent. Okay, so they aren't worthless.

465
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 4: It's the friends say along the way.

466
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 2: Exactly. So there's this appraiser, Laura Woolley of Antiques Road Show.

467
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 2: She said, quote, there's a much deeper emotional connection with memorabilia.

468
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 2: Most people encounter these objects or develop a fondness for

469
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: them in childhood. It sounds like a like a psychological Yeah,

470
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,399
Speaker 2: it sounds like, you know, they have in childhood, and

471
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 2: when you grow up and suddenly you're an adult with

472
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 2: money to spend, you can recapture something from you if

473
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 2: most of these things kind of turn people back into children, Okay, lady.

474
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 4: I only sounds Funko pops, Yes.

475
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 2: Funko pops.

476
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:36,840
Speaker 3: Yes.

477
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:38,919
Speaker 2: She probably sounds like a totally normal person in my

478
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:44,480
Speaker 2: major sound marginally AI Anyway, Thomas, he spent decades researching

479
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 2: the history of all these these various pairs of ruby

480
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 2: slippers flying around. In nineteen seventy nine, the purchaser of

481
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,159
Speaker 2: the auction slippers, the one that for fifteen thousand, donated

482
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 2: those to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and

483
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,360
Speaker 2: then a curator at the Smithsonian said that they're kept

484
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 2: in a locked case with an alarm, and they're under

485
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:09,239
Speaker 2: twenty four hour guard surveillance. So these these things are

486
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,720
Speaker 2: to be protected, Dave. They're They're a major part of

487
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,320
Speaker 2: pretty much, you know. I mean, that's who we are,

488
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:16,199
Speaker 2: it's what we believe.

489
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,240
Speaker 4: So when people say we're bigger than this, we are

490
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:20,160
Speaker 4: talking about those.

491
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 2: Slippers precisely, precisely so this they said that any tampering

492
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,199
Speaker 2: would immediately send a message to the guard's office. So

493
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,480
Speaker 2: it's just wired. Can't get in there. That Memphis woman

494
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 2: who won the pair in the forties or whatever, she

495
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 2: sold them in nineteen eighty eight to a collector at

496
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 2: an auction for one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars.

497
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 2: That's a come up, Yeah, it is. I mean, she's

498
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 2: a good job lady.

499
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she won them, right, she previously she won them.

500
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 2: So now she's got one hundred and sixty five grand.

501
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 2: She you know, sells them to this collector. The collector

502
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 2: was a huge Garland fan, and that he'd seen her

503
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 2: in concert thirty five times and even attended her funeral.

504
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 2: And so that person turned around and loaned the ruby

505
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,719
Speaker 2: slippers to Disney World for display before selling them at

506
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 2: auction in two thousand and four six hundred and sixty

507
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:14,120
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars.

508
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 4: Wow, and if you're Disney, you're getting some serious rent

509
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 4: on the one thing.

510
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 2: Oh totally, totally so six ' six y six k right.

511
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 2: A group of collectors and investors, one of the Slipper Consortium,

512
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 2: David L. Koubi, said to Newsweek, quote, we were collectors,

513
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,400
Speaker 2: and for us, that's the ultimate prize. So now, where

514
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 2: do they live? In a bank vault? They live in

515
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:37,720
Speaker 2: a bank.

516
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 4: Vau Oh perfect, that's exactly where.

517
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 2: There's no place like home. So nineteen eighty one, three

518
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 2: years before he died at UCLA Medical Center, most likely

519
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 2: not clutching the Ruby slippers, Kurt Warner sold his pair

520
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,800
Speaker 2: of Ruby slippers at auction for twelve thousand dollars in

521
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one. Then in twenty twelve, the person who

522
00:26:56,359 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 2: bought them sold those for two million, two million dollars

523
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 2: million a shoe to a group of people who bought

524
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 2: them for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

525
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,120
Speaker 4: I mean that's like a grand a sequin pretty much.

526
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 2: But you know who is in this group that paid

527
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 2: two mil Leo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg of.

528
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 4: Course, Oh, Steven Spielberg.

529
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,640
Speaker 2: Of course you knew Leo and Stevie.

530
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need that.

531
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 2: So twenty eleven, Debbie Reynolds sold her test pair that

532
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 2: she did get for six hundred twenty seven thousand at

533
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 2: an auction. Those shoes were called the Arabian Test Pair,

534
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 2: and they got their name because they had an experimental

535
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 2: design with curled toes.

536
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 4: Whoa ooh heillo. Yeah.

537
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,360
Speaker 2: So this is what Debbie Reynolds had to say. Quote,

538
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 2: I know Judy wore them, and I know she liked

539
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,520
Speaker 2: them best of all, she said, I want the pair

540
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 2: with a pointy toe. Apparently Judy didn't get what Judy wanted.

541
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 2: So here's the thing though, Like Dorothy's dress, is that

542
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,919
Speaker 2: of a simple farm girl gingham for day. And they

543
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 2: thought that the Arabian style shoes were just too ornate,

544
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 2: as if like sequined pumps aren't. But okay, you know,

545
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 2: I get it. So now that we have a better

546
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 2: understanding of the high stakes world of ruby slippers, let's

547
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:17,200
Speaker 2: head back to Grand Rapids, Minnesota and the Judy Garland Museum. Dave,

548
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: close your eyes.

549
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 4: What okay? And now what you do here? I'm picturing it.

550
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 2: I want you to picture it.

551
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 4: Eyes are closed.

552
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,080
Speaker 2: It's August twenty eighth, two thousand and five, and you're

553
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 2: a haunted porcelain doll sitting on display at the Judy

554
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,200
Speaker 2: Garland Museum in Grand Rapits, Minnesota.

555
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 4: Oh my god, you.

556
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 2: Were one of one of Judy's childhood favorite toys, maybe

557
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 2: because you were haunted even way back then. You sit

558
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 2: on your shelf watching judging. It's been a long day

559
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 2: at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. But

560
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 2: night has fallen and the rest of the haunted items

561
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 2: are going about their business, whimpering or plotting to shove

562
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 2: a vase to the floor. It's just past two am.

563
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 3: Red round.

564
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 2: Suddenly you hear a commotion at the back of the museum.

565
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 2: Then glass breaks. Your creepy glass eyes shift in your

566
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 2: haunted porcelain skull to peer at the hallway. A figure

567
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 2: approaches the teddy bear next to you, senses trouble, and

568
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 2: its eyes begin to glow. You use your esp to

569
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 2: tell the bear to knock it off. Well, now is

570
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 2: not the time to use your powers to slash the

571
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 2: human with a broken bottle. You guys are saving all

572
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: that for the uprisings. For now. You and the other

573
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 2: haunted Sundrys watch as a person tiptoes into the room.

574
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 2: The burglar approaches the plexiglass case directly across the room

575
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 2: from you. This should be interesting, you think. The robber

576
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 2: gently whistles a tune and lifts a crowbar high above

577
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 2: their head. The haunted typewriter begins to slack out some

578
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,040
Speaker 2: ribbon for a garat no. You signal ever so slightly.

579
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 2: That display has been getting all the attention late lately.

580
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 2: Let the criminal do their work with a great force.

581
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 2: The burglar brings the crowbar down onto the plexiglass case,

582
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 2: splintering it. The haunted random cassette tape stacked in a

583
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 2: bookcase hiss, yes, Yes, the large carriage in the next

584
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 2: room creaks with delight at the chaos. The burglar hears

585
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 2: the noise and freezes dead silence. The person goes back

586
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 2: to the job at hand. They gently lift the pair

587
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 2: of iconic ruby slippers from the destroyed case and tiptoe

588
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 2: back out. There's much silent chatter among all the haunted

589
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 2: items at the museum about who that was and where

590
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 2: the slippers would go. Unfortunately, the slippers weren't haunted. There's

591
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 2: no way to get a message to them and track them.

592
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 2: This is when it pays to be haunted, Dave. Come morning,

593
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 2: when the staff opened the museum to the Garland loving public,

594
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 2: all hell broke loose. The stolen ruby slippers weren't part

595
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 2: of the museum's permanent collection. They were on loan to

596
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 2: the museum, on display for the annual Judy Garland Festival.

597
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 2: Who owned these stolen ruby slippers Michael shaw Kit He

598
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 2: would often lend the slippers for thousands of dollars to

599
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 2: museums to display, and then he would turn around and

600
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 2: he said, donate the money to children and charities which

601
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 2: he may have. You know, let's give him the benefit

602
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 2: of the doubt. This is what he said. Quote, I

603
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 2: literally felt like I was hit in the stomach when

604
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 2: I got the call. My knees buckled and I went

605
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:12,959
Speaker 2: right to the floor. I had taken care of those

606
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 2: shoes for thirty five years. John Miner, who co founded

607
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 2: the museum and was also the treasurer. He said quote,

608
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 2: I cried. I couldn't believe this happened to us, because

609
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 2: it was the stupidest thing.

610
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 4: This is like the most dramatic thing that could happen

611
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 4: to the most dramatic people in the world.

612
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's so wonderful. I love this so much.

613
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 2: Christopher Myers, who was a US attorney in North Dakota.

614
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 2: He was somehow involved in the case. I don't know

615
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 2: why he was working in Minnesota whatever. So quote there's

616
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 2: a certain romance in these types of schemes and sometimes sophistication,

617
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, it's theft. These

618
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 2: types of offenses not only deprived the owner of their property,

619
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 2: but all of us. This type of cultural property is

620
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 2: important to us as a society. It reflects culture, It

621
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 2: holds our memories, it reflects our values. He's totally running

622
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 2: for office, right like he's running, baby, I mean.

623
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 4: People would not even know that the ruby slippers were gone.

624
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 4: First of all, there's like a million pairs of them.

625
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 4: And second of all, right, like everyone has that copy

626
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:18,640
Speaker 4: of Life magazine with a picture of them, and that's

627
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 4: all they need in their lips they need.

628
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 2: They're done. So there are the slippers, the ones that

629
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 2: bring so much joy uniting our culture. They are sitting

630
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 2: in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and

631
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, they're not. Shaw had declined

632
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 2: the museum's offer to store the Ruby slippers in a

633
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 2: vault because he said he didn't like the idea that

634
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 2: the guards would be touching these shoes on a daily basis.

635
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 2: He said all he cared about was having security, even

636
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 2: just like as a baseline. So there was no security

637
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 2: camera footage of the break in and no fingerprints, just

638
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 2: a lone speck of red sequin left behind. The museum

639
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 2: did have both an alarm system and video surveillance equipment,

640
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 2: but neither one we're working at the time of the burglary.

641
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 4: Inside job.

642
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 2: That's exactly job. Oh everyone's saying it's an inside job. Well,

643
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 2: here's what the museum said. They said that they told

644
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 2: the alarm company to turn off the alarm during the

645
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,719
Speaker 2: day because museum visitors kept using the back door. So

646
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 2: instead of saying do not open, like just give him

647
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,479
Speaker 2: free egress out the back, turn off the alarm. So

648
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 2: and because the thing is is like when the alarm

649
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 2: would go off, it would alert the police, and then

650
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 2: if you have enough false alarms, they start charging you

651
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 2: in the medium couldn't afford it. So the alarm company

652
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 2: was like, that's totally not what happened. We were told

653
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 2: to disable the alarm completely, not just during the day.

654
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 2: And then with CCTV, everyone knew. They turned the CCTV

655
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 2: off at night save energy. What I don't know, it's

656
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 2: like peak hours. Who knows.

657
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 4: I feel like when you know, when Indiana Jones said

658
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 4: just belongs in a museum, this is not what he

659
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 4: had in mind.

660
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 3: No, this is.

661
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 2: Totally not animly. So the museum director, John kel She said,

662
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 2: quote everyone knew we didn't have any security staff. Michael

663
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 2: Shaw knew that. It's just sad that it happened here.

664
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 2: It is like, yeah, everyone knew. It's just so sad.

665
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 2: There was like people thought that the ruby slippers were

666
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 2: actually a fake pair that was set up to be

667
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 2: quote stolen, and that Shaw paid someone in the museum

668
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 2: to kind of like facilitate this whole thing, you know,

669
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 2: insurance money and all Shaw totally denies this. There's this

670
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 2: private investigator, Kip Alexander Kyp.

671
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 4: Now I'm picturing Kip from Futurama.

672
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 2: Kip Alexander. This is what he said. Quote. There's a

673
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 2: lot of theories surrounding this. You could say there's as

674
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 2: many as Area fifty one had as far as conspiracies

675
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 2: or theories. There's a lot of distrust and distaste left

676
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 2: in their mouth, for sure. So he's putting it on

677
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 2: par with Area fifty one.

678
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 4: He's just speaking directly to like the History Channel special

679
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:50,879
Speaker 4: right now, completely.

680
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 2: Completely And what did Shaw say about all this? Don't

681
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 2: forget Shaw voice of kit quote, I'm so furious that

682
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 2: the slippers are gone. It's very frustrating that they haven't

683
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 2: caught that obsessed, fanatic, selfish bastard who stole them. Shaw

684
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 2: And there was a theory swirling around this is I love.

685
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 2: I don't know how this theory came to life, but

686
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 2: I love it, and I feel like I would have

687
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 2: started it as a rumor if I lived in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

688
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 2: A lot of people thought that the theft was pulled

689
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 2: off by teenagers who are just trying to pull a

690
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 2: plant a prank, and then they panicked and threw the

691
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,800
Speaker 2: slippers away, but not just away away.

692
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 4: So like ten years, well, wait ten years, that's what

693
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 4: happened to those baseball uniforms in that other ridiculous cross

694
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 4: That is true.

695
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 2: Maybe they're yeah, I don't know, maybe they're onto something.

696
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 2: But like, so, ten years after the theft, all these

697
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 2: crowds gathered along the shoreline of the Tioga Mine Pitt Lake.

698
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 2: Why what does that have to do with ruby slippers?

699
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 4: Day? Yah? What does that have? Slippers?

700
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 3: Lizabeth?

701
00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 2: The good folks were there to watch the Ataska County

702
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 2: Sheriffs off his don scuba gear and dive in search

703
00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 2: of the ruby slippers the old quarry, so that there

704
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,439
Speaker 2: was a fear that the thieves threw them in the lake,

705
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,959
Speaker 2: and the lake had depths of up to two hundred

706
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 2: and twenty five feet. So Morgan White is a filmmaker

707
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 2: who's working on a documentary called The Slippers, is one

708
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 2: of the people who's totally convinced that the teens did it.

709
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,239
Speaker 2: Quote all signs seem to point to the fact that

710
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 2: these kids did it. They're probably sitting at the bottom

711
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,320
Speaker 2: of the mind pit and nobody will ever see them again.

712
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 4: Now, were there specific kids who he said when he

713
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 4: says these kids.

714
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I couldn't tell. I think they had

715
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 2: their eye on a couple kids. But I have news

716
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 2: for you, Dave. The ruby slippers were not found in

717
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 2: the Tioga mine pit lake.

718
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 4: Oh thank god, the ruin totally.

719
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,640
Speaker 2: So this private donor in Arizona finds out, Okay, look

720
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,960
Speaker 2: that the slippers aren't in the lake. We're getting to

721
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:58,240
Speaker 2: be this is ridiculous. Someone needs to put a stop

722
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,680
Speaker 2: to it. I offer a million dollar for the recovery

723
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,920
Speaker 2: of the ruby slippers, A million dollars on the barrelhead.

724
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 2: This announcement that it went in The Guardian, the New

725
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 2: York Times, US Weekly, I mean US Weekly, the Magazine

726
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:16,640
Speaker 2: of Record, Washington Post. So this this donor like originally

727
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I'll do phone interviews, you know, that's cool,

728
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 2: but then at the last minute would cancel the Rhys

729
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 2: Thomas believes that the one who wrote the book that

730
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,359
Speaker 2: believes that the museum faked that anonymous donor to get

731
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 2: publicity because they were getting another Oz item in. So

732
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,800
Speaker 2: they're like, okay, we just got the horse drawn carriage

733
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 2: that was apparently it used to be owned by Abraham

734
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 2: Lincoln before it became a movie prop. So there the

735
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:44,879
Speaker 2: carriage in the Wizard of Oz apparently was originally owned

736
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,320
Speaker 2: by Abraham Lincoln, which is like totally glossed over in

737
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 2: all this.

738
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:53,240
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, for one thing, that's a real historical relic,

739
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 4: right right. That another thing, yeah, like I'm not trusting

740
00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 4: this museum with anything ever again.

741
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 2: Yeah exact, Yeah, you're gonna roll that in there. It's like, yeah,

742
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 2: people go out of there. Okay, So the museum, like,

743
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 2: you know, Thomas says, I think you faked it because

744
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 2: you just want people to know about you have this

745
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 2: cool carriage. The museum told Newsweek that they would provide

746
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 2: a notarized letter from the attorney of the anonymous donor

747
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 2: if he wished to push, you know, whether or not

748
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 2: they existed. Everyone gave up? Who cares?

749
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:22,440
Speaker 3: Who knows?

750
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,600
Speaker 2: Who cares? There's a bakery in Minneapolis called the I

751
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 2: don't even know how to say this. You know, here's

752
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 2: the thing. I come across these words and I'm guaranteed

753
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 2: to say the wrong version of it.

754
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 4: Yes, and I don't care.

755
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 3: I don't care.

756
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:36,480
Speaker 2: People correct me. I'm like, you know, at the end

757
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,279
Speaker 2: of the day, I don't care. It's w U L

758
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 2: L E T wallets, you know, wallets. Anyway, they sold

759
00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 2: cakes that had the ruby slippers on it, and then

760
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 2: in icing they wrote reward one million dollars, like just

761
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 2: to keep the magic alive David's part of the culture.

762
00:38:55,480 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 2: The Marriott offered a reward of one million Marriott Rewards.

763
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 4: Points, which is like worth twenty bucks.

764
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 2: It's worth twelve five hundred dollars to anyone who found

765
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,279
Speaker 2: the ruby slippers by August thirty first, a few weeks

766
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 2: shy of the tenth anniversary of the theft.

767
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,400
Speaker 4: Now probably like just before they expire, like the expired.

768
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 2: After they shut the whole rewards program down. An insurance

769
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,400
Speaker 2: company offered a two hundred thousand dollars reward. A board

770
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,760
Speaker 2: member of the museum contributed fifty k to a reward.

771
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 2: They say that they got about a thousand calls regarding

772
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,320
Speaker 2: the whereabouts of the ruby slippers. A yard sale in

773
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 2: Virginia stapled to a restaurant wall in Missouris. Yeah, it

774
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:41,440
Speaker 2: could be. There were claims that a radio station in

775
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:44,439
Speaker 2: New Hampshire was giving them away as a prize. Can't

776
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 2: trust New Hampshire. In twenty eleven, law enforcement noticed a

777
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:52,480
Speaker 2: pair of ruby slippers in a home in San Francisco

778
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 2: when they were responding to a home burglary.

779
00:39:55,320 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 4: No no, I mean, see, it doesn't even seem.

780
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:04,919
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Like, so the cops go into

781
00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:06,880
Speaker 2: this house and they're like, oh, cool, ruby slippers, and

782
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 2: someone's like, I heard about the theft. You have to

783
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:09,720
Speaker 2: say something.

784
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, those individual officers wanted the rewards.

785
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 2: They got a search warrant after being told like the

786
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 2: home but the homeowners like, you know what, those were

787
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 2: a gift from a past lover, and so they're all right,

788
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:23,800
Speaker 2: never mind. So but they these things have a serial

789
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 2: number on them, and it didn't match the missing pair.

790
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,239
Speaker 2: How do they have serial numbers whatever? So how many

791
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 2: pairs are out there? At one point someone did come

792
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 2: forward claiming to know about these stolen slippers and how

793
00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 2: they could be returned, but it turned out it was

794
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 2: just someone trying to, you know, extort the insurance company.

795
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 2: By two thousand and nine, case was called no Leads,

796
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,840
Speaker 2: No clues. The cops were like, you know, it's not

797
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:51,800
Speaker 2: really a priority right now. Four months after the robbery,

798
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 2: Essex Insurance Company took Shaw, the museum, and the museum

799
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 2: director to court, claiming the insurance policy was voided by

800
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 2: the museum because they didn't disclose changes to their security measures.

801
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:06,759
Speaker 2: Shaw said of this quote the insurance company, they investigated

802
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,919
Speaker 2: me upside down, inside out. They realized I had nothing

803
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 2: to do with it, and basically the museum knew it too.

804
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 2: They were reaching its straws to try and throw the

805
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 2: guilt away from themselves. So all these years later, the

806
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 2: parties settled in two thousand and seven. Shaw got eight

807
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars out of it. He said, quote, I'm

808
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 2: still furious for so many people. They represented home, love

809
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:30,359
Speaker 2: and childhood and security. That's what people saw when they

810
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:34,359
Speaker 2: looked at the slippers. And now they're gone, gone, but

811
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 2: not forgotten. So the FBI Art Crime Unit and agents

812
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:41,719
Speaker 2: from Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami, they went undercover because they

813
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:45,120
Speaker 2: had to lead a strong one. This sting operation was set.

814
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 2: One of them took them all the way to Minneapolis.

815
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:51,360
Speaker 2: Let's take a break. When we come back, I'm going

816
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:52,399
Speaker 2: to tell you how this went down.

817
00:41:53,480 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 4: Gotta know, all right, Dave.

818
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 2: When we left off, the FBI was about to solve

819
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:19,840
Speaker 2: the case of the missing Ruby slippers. I can't wait

820
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 2: the sting operation in Minneapolis, remember that. Sure, it was

821
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 2: a success. On September fourth, two thousand and nine, the

822
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 2: FBI announced the stolen Ruby slippers were recovered and taken

823
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:35,359
Speaker 2: to the Smithsonian for authentication. No suspects were named at

824
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 2: the time, and officials asked that anyone with any information

825
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:41,320
Speaker 2: please contact the FBI. So I'm guessing they kind of

826
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,640
Speaker 2: changed hands the recovered Ruby slippers. They were put on

827
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 2: display in a clear case for reporters to photograph during

828
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 2: a press conference. So they like paraded them out.

829
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 4: It's like when they put all the cash and the

830
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 4: drugs on the table.

831
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 2: They fanned out all nicely like this. No, you know what,

832
00:42:58,680 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 2: it's too symmetrical.

833
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:01,799
Speaker 4: Can we get some more cleague lights in here?

834
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:06,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have like ring lights on the pilot cash.

835
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 2: So they wheel them out. They were guarded by FBI

836
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 2: officials who would tell people, you know, don't get too

837
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,439
Speaker 2: close to the glass. This is evidence, you know, hey,

838
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 2: give it some distance, So click them heels and fast forward.

839
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:24,280
Speaker 2: Fourteen years. On Tuesday May fifteenth, twenty twenty three, Terry Martin,

840
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:27,720
Speaker 2: a seventy six year old Minnesotan who lived twelve miles

841
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,360
Speaker 2: south of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,

842
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 2: was indicted by a grand jury for one count of

843
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 2: theft of a major artwork. Wow, he stole the Ruby

844
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:44,200
Speaker 2: Slippers nearly eighteen years prior, And well, no it wasn't.

845
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 2: It was a seventy six year old man, and I

846
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:48,919
Speaker 2: guess he was like in his late fifties at the point.

847
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,719
Speaker 2: So those little tappers they're now worth an estimated three

848
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:54,959
Speaker 2: point five million dollars.

849
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 4: Do you think being lost made them more valuable?

850
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 2: Oh? It has to have. And they're called quote, an

851
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 2: object of cultural heritage from the care, custody or control

852
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,320
Speaker 2: of a museum. So it's like this is museum quality.

853
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,880
Speaker 2: It's like I've ever seen antiques road show when someone

854
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 2: wheels something out and they're like, oh, no, this actually

855
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:13,560
Speaker 2: has to be in a museum. We can't put a

856
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:17,360
Speaker 2: dollar amount on it, Like yeah, yeah, yeah. So the

857
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 2: indictment made people wonder if did this seventy six year

858
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:25,359
Speaker 2: old Minnesota did he act alone? Was he hired by

859
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:26,920
Speaker 2: organized crime.

860
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 4: Why does he hate America?

861
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:31,319
Speaker 2: Why does he hate the culture in America? This is

862
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 2: what the guy had to say to the Minnesota Star

863
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:36,319
Speaker 2: Tribune quote, I gotta go on trial. I don't want

864
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 2: to talk to you. God bless my kind of guy.

865
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:44,439
Speaker 2: So this is a great name. Seaword Darby. Say word,

866
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 2: Say word again again? S E S E Y W

867
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:54,359
Speaker 2: A R D say word sword, Say word Darby. This

868
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,840
Speaker 2: person is the co host of the podcast No Place

869
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 2: Like Home. So like, I don't want a turf step

870
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 2: on another. Respect respect you, respect mad respect quote. There

871
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 2: was a strong suspicion that there was a quote local

872
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,640
Speaker 2: connection to the crime, someone with knowledge of the museum,

873
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: in fact, that the slippers were on loan there in

874
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 2: the summer of two thousand and five, and how easy

875
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,799
Speaker 2: they were to steal. What's interesting is that Martin is

876
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:18,600
Speaker 2: just one piece of the puzzle. Over the thirteen years

877
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 2: the slippers were missing, it is possible, likely even that

878
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,480
Speaker 2: they exchanged hands. So that's a deep dive if you're

879
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:29,320
Speaker 2: interested in No Place Like Home. Rhys Thomas, the author, quote,

880
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:31,000
Speaker 2: I have a feeling this is just the tip of

881
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: the iceberg. I don't think a single individual would have

882
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 2: been have opportunistically grabbed the shoes and then sat on

883
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 2: them for thirteen years and then gotten himself involved in

884
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 2: an extortion case.

885
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 3: What I just deep.

886
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 2: It goes deep, Dave, It goes so much deeper than

887
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:46,399
Speaker 2: you know.

888
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:49,759
Speaker 4: Like, there's no so he really he walks out the

889
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 4: back door one day at the museum. He's like, oh,

890
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 4: there's no alarm here, and realizes he could probably just

891
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:56,440
Speaker 4: walk out with some slippers.

892
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:58,799
Speaker 2: He'd totally they totally fit him.

893
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:01,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like he goes back or he gets home and

894
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,319
Speaker 4: he's like, honey, slipper fence, slipper fence. He's like looking

895
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 4: at his Yellow Pages and he realizes there's no such

896
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:08,399
Speaker 4: thing as a slipper fence.

897
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:10,920
Speaker 2: Oh well, when he got him, and he got him

898
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:12,719
Speaker 2: for his wife, his wife is like these don't fit.

899
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:14,880
Speaker 2: Well okay, well just I'll take him back and he

900
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 2: just shoves him in the closet. So the pair of

901
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,879
Speaker 2: ruby slippers that were stolen are technically not a true pair.

902
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:25,239
Speaker 2: The left and right shoes are different sizes, and they

903
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 2: actually are mates to the left and right ruby slippers

904
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 2: on display at the Smithsonian. It's weird. Do you know,

905
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 2: do you know that those are one of the most

906
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 2: asked about artifacts there. I didn't know that, like where

907
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:41,600
Speaker 2: are the ruby slippers? Like hey, hey, where are the

908
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 2: ruby slippers? And over there, sir, like that's the most

909
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 2: asked question at the Smithsonian. So they made several pairs

910
00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:50,879
Speaker 2: of these for filming. As we know, we many now

911
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,720
Speaker 2: believe that the original total was seven, and that includes

912
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 2: one pair that was originally chewed up by Toto. Some

913
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 2: I thing I can vouch is an action of a

914
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:04,759
Speaker 2: car and terrier. Like I have to say that my

915
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 2: dog passed away at the end of December twenty two

916
00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 2: at the age of fifteen, and I'd had him since

917
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 2: he was three months old. His name was Elliott, and

918
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 2: we counted him as one of the internsier. I loved

919
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,399
Speaker 2: bless up Elliott. I liked I liked to blame things

920
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 2: on him in this show, and like sometimes I get

921
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,320
Speaker 2: wistful thinking about what he chewed up when he was

922
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:26,400
Speaker 2: a young pup, baseboards, legs of chairs. He once chewed

923
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 2: a hole in a purse that I had to get

924
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 2: to a cookie in there instead of like going in

925
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 2: through the top. So anyway, so when I hear about

926
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 2: Toto chewing up a pair of iconic ruby slippers. I

927
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 2: kind of like that, Like puppies remind us that things

928
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,279
Speaker 2: are just things, right, they're impermanent, and then we get

929
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 2: older and they remind us that they and we are

930
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,400
Speaker 2: impermanent too. So it's all stuff. It's just stuff, And

931
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 2: that's why I love these kind of crimes. It's just stuff.

932
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 2: So they may be like part of the culture and

933
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 2: we're three million dollars, but at the end of the day,

934
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 2: it's just stuff. So ruby slippers. Only three pairs are

935
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,279
Speaker 2: said to have survived. Of the seven. The stolen hair

936
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 2: was what's known as the quote traveling pair, and they

937
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,560
Speaker 2: were made from a dozen different pieces of material that

938
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:11,960
Speaker 2: included glass, plastic, gelatine, silk, threading, wood, pulp. Okay, I

939
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:15,680
Speaker 2: don't know. So the majority, like the ruby coloring, really

940
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:18,520
Speaker 2: came from the sequins, but they were like bows on

941
00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:21,680
Speaker 2: them that were red glass beads, and the show's traveling

942
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 2: pair were actually burgundy, not ruby red, because that would

943
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 2: have come out as bright orange in technicolor, and so

944
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 2: the pair was the one. The stolen ones are the

945
00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 2: ones used for close up shots when Dorothy clicked her

946
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 2: heels together. Shaw said they were absolutely beautiful, and he

947
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:40,840
Speaker 2: would only handle them while wearing white gloves like he

948
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,800
Speaker 2: worked at Sephora. It wasn't until after the stolen pairs

949
00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 2: were recovered that it was learned that they were mismatched

950
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,560
Speaker 2: twins of the pair at the Smithsonium. So the Ruby

951
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 2: slippers are still in custody with the authorities, just like

952
00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:57,319
Speaker 2: Funko Batman. They can't be returned to their owner in

953
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 2: this case Shaw, because Shah got that insurance payout. So yeah, insurance,

954
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 2: just like Bunco Batman. So the insurance company is the

955
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:10,320
Speaker 2: legal owner. Shaw is at peace with this quote. There's

956
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 2: more to my life than a pair of pumps. I

957
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 2: have no desire to have them again. After years of

958
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,920
Speaker 2: bringing joy and happiness to so many thousands and thousands

959
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 2: of people by being able to see them. Now to me,

960
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 2: they're a nightmare. I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

961
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 2: I'm sick of it. They're gone. Frankly, my dear, I

962
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 2: don't give a dance. Wait now, he yeah, he's amazing.

963
00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 2: Janey Heights the executive director of the Judy Garland Museum.

964
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:36,200
Speaker 2: There are so many levels, there's like different director levels,

965
00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:41,760
Speaker 2: and whatever she wants the recovered ruby slippers to stay

966
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 2: in federal custody as case evidence, and then hopes that

967
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 2: they can be like eventually returned to the museum. So

968
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,719
Speaker 2: like slippery way to get around to having them back

969
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:54,319
Speaker 2: at the museum. Quote, it's such an iconic item that

970
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:57,319
Speaker 2: means so much to so many people. And she said

971
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 2: that it, you know, represents home and a sense of place. Quote,

972
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:01,920
Speaker 2: it would be a shame for them to stay in

973
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,600
Speaker 2: a locked case for the rest of time, So let's

974
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 2: send them to the zero security level. Judy Garland Museum

975
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 2: and Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She said she can find no

976
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 2: connection between Martin and the museum and that everyone at

977
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:18,480
Speaker 2: the museum is quote a little bit speechless that someone

978
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 2: was charged. Almost two decades later, Tim Gerring I mentioned

979
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 2: him Minnesota Monthly. I'm going to let him send us

980
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 2: off here with some really incredible observations. This is a

981
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 2: long quote, but it's worth it. Quote Throughout her famously

982
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:35,400
Speaker 2: up and down career, which ended Elvis style in nineteen

983
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,240
Speaker 2: sixty nine an accidental overdose of sleeping pills rigor Mortis

984
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 2: in the London bathroom. Garland was particularly admired by gay men.

985
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 2: She was less guarded than most stars, and they were

986
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 2: drawn to this brassy candor. After all, being unguarded wasn't

987
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:52,399
Speaker 2: an option for gay men in Garland's day. They could

988
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 2: only long, like Dorothy to live in technicolor. They secretly

989
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 2: referred to themselves as friends of Dorothy and took solace

990
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 2: in Garland's apparent sympathy, not least perhaps because two of

991
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,960
Speaker 2: her five husbands turned out to be gay. Quote if

992
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:09,240
Speaker 2: you're afraid to love, if you're afraid to feel emotion,

993
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 2: you can't know Judy Garland, one fan tells me, aids

994
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:16,440
Speaker 2: took an outsized bite of Garland's fan base, and as

995
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:20,200
Speaker 2: gay culture, once closely associated with the cult of Garland,

996
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 2: is increasingly assimilated into the mainstream, fewer young gay men

997
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 2: are picking up the torch. In the world of celebrity memorabilia,

998
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 2: the failure to recover the Ruby Slippers has conjured no

999
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 2: little trepidation, A fear that people aren't taking the icon's

1000
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:38,560
Speaker 2: disappearance seriously, fear that the magic is finally wearing off.

1001
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:41,440
Speaker 2: If the Slippers lose their hold on the American imagination,

1002
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:45,960
Speaker 2: what other cultural mementos might we deem disposable. It's an

1003
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:48,600
Speaker 2: American national treasure that's been stolen, and no one gives

1004
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:51,239
Speaker 2: a damn, cries Brian Cummings, a New York appraiser of

1005
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:54,439
Speaker 2: celebrity memorabilia. It blows my mind to know that they're

1006
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:57,920
Speaker 2: still out there. Yet in the new status of stolen property,

1007
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 2: the slippers feel more real than they have in years.

1008
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:03,680
Speaker 2: They are mere objects again to be lost or found,

1009
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:06,320
Speaker 2: and perhaps that is for the best. The old movie

1010
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:08,920
Speaker 2: studios we know now were never in the business of

1011
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 2: making magic so much as illusions. Stars like Garland were

1012
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:16,120
Speaker 2: fed pills and cigarettes by their studio bosses and stage

1013
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:19,520
Speaker 2: moms to control their weight. They were products as manufactured

1014
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:21,880
Speaker 2: as the props from the stage names to their public

1015
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,880
Speaker 2: lives created for them by studio publicity departments. To treasure

1016
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 2: Hollywood memorabilia is to value fantasy over this harsh reality,

1017
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:32,240
Speaker 2: to ignore the man behind the curtain.

1018
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:36,200
Speaker 4: Wow, brav right, I mean home.

1019
00:52:36,520 --> 00:52:40,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an amazing article, Dave, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

1020
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:43,880
Speaker 4: Oh man? Can I first I want to thank the Academy.

1021
00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:49,719
Speaker 4: I've been waiting for this moment forever, you know. I

1022
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 4: think it's interesting and that quote really brought it home.

1023
00:52:52,719 --> 00:52:56,000
Speaker 4: Like these slippers are far more meaningful to the gay

1024
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:59,759
Speaker 4: community than they could possibly be to quote America rit

1025
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 4: law Arge. In fact, I feel like those two things

1026
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 4: are almost intention because like what Judy Garland means to

1027
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,879
Speaker 4: that culture is different than what Judy Garland means, which

1028
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:13,840
Speaker 4: is you know equally yeah yeah yeah, And it really

1029
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,840
Speaker 4: like speaks to a struggle in a way that Judy Garland,

1030
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:21,200
Speaker 4: this like amazing pop star, movie star and musical star,

1031
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 4: isn't really representative of a struggle for like most of America.

1032
00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 4: She's just like the pinnacle of Hollywood magic. And so

1033
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 4: like in that context, I get it. And it's almost

1034
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:34,680
Speaker 4: like in that context, things like like this should be

1035
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 4: owned by that community and like instead of being you know,

1036
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 4: locked away in a museum somewhere, Like I'm glad they're home,

1037
00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 4: and I get why it's a big deal that they

1038
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 4: were missing.

1039
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I love the idea that tying it in

1040
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,400
Speaker 2: with in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy gets to

1041
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:54,759
Speaker 2: go to Oz and be brave and create her own

1042
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:57,640
Speaker 2: family and community, and like the thing is to live

1043
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:01,040
Speaker 2: in technicolor, to like have all these options and brilliance

1044
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 2: around her, and so reading that really kind of drove

1045
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,120
Speaker 2: it home the importance of it, so you know, I

1046
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 2: make fun of it. It's not important to me, but

1047
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:10,280
Speaker 2: that doesn't make it not important.

1048
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I hate I'm just gonna kind of.

1049
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:17,399
Speaker 2: Like, who do I But you know, don't tell anyone I.

1050
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:19,239
Speaker 4: Can get down with the shoes like I get it.

1051
00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I totally get it. I totally get it.

1052
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 2: So that's it. That's all I have for you today.

1053
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 2: You do you like it?

1054
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:29,280
Speaker 4: It was awesome, Elizabeth, Thank you so much.

1055
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. You can find us online at

1056
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:34,680
Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime dot com. We have t shirts if you're

1057
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,640
Speaker 2: into that sort of thing. Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter

1058
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:41,400
Speaker 2: and Instagram. Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. We don't

1059
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:44,320
Speaker 2: look at those. Leave a talkback on the iHeart app.

1060
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 4: Do it.

1061
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:53,440
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Dave Cousten

1062
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 2: and sometimes Aaron Burnett, produced and edited by the Great

1063
00:54:56,600 --> 00:55:00,160
Speaker 2: Oz Dave Cousten. Research is by Marissa Brown, The Goodwitch

1064
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:03,480
Speaker 2: and the Wickedest Witch of the Southeast, Andrea's song Sharpened Tear.

1065
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:06,839
Speaker 2: The theme song is by Lollipop Guild Ambassadors Thomas Lee

1066
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:10,480
Speaker 2: and Travis Dutton. Executive producers are cowardly Lyon Ben Bollen

1067
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:11,880
Speaker 2: and Tin Man, Noel.

1068
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:22,320
Speaker 5: Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Timequeous Crime.

1069
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:26,680
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

1070
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:29,960
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1071
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:31,800
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.