“He wants to come clean to clear his conscience before he dies. He is very sick,” Terry Jon Martin’s attorney Dane DeKrey tells Inside Edition.
The mystery behind the theft of what may be the most famous movie memorabilia of all time, Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” has finally been solved.
Dying mobster Terry Jon Martin admitted to stealing the shoes from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
“He wants to come clean to clear his conscience before he dies. He is very sick,” Martin’s attorney Dane DeKrey tells Inside Edition.
Martin decided to set the record straight about the infamous 2005 theft. It was his last big score after a life of crime. He is currently said to be in his final days in hospice care.
“I think when you are seeing your own mortality, you are more willing to speak frankly,” DeKrey says.
Martin has never seen the classic 1939 movie. He says he thought the slippers were made from real rubies, not glass.
“The Wizard of Oz” expert John Frickle spoke with Inside Edition.
“Another pair has been sold for two million dollars and if they came up again, who know, three million dollars,” Fickle says.
There are four pairs of the ruby slippers still in existence, one of which was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown.
DeKrey says they are hoping the judge agrees with a joint recommendation for no more prison time.
Martin will be sentenced on Monday.
