Man pleads guilty to stealing ‘Wizard of Oz’ ruby slippers

A pair of ruby slippers once worn by actress Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz sit on display at an FBI office in Minnesota in 2018 (Jeff Baenen/AP/PA)

A man charged with the museum theft of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the film The Wizard Of Oz has changed his plea to guilty, pulling back the curtain on a whodunnit mystery dating back 18 years.

Terry Jon Martin, 76, was charged in May with one count of theft of a major artwork. The shoes from the film were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the actress’s home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered in 2018 by the FBI.