Would you believe there were real rubies on Dorothy’s famous ruby slippers?

You might know better, but former mobster Terry Jon Martin certainly bought it.

In court documents released Sunday, the motive behind Martin’s theft of one of the iconic screen-used pairs of ruby slippers from MGM’s classic film The Wizard of Oz was finally revealed. Martin’s attorney revealed that Martin gave into the temptation of “one last score,” stealing the footwear after an old mob associate led him to believe the famous shoes must be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.

Martin pleaded guilty in October to theft for the 2005 heist. Martin broke into the Judy Garland museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and used a hammer to smash the glass of the display case, nabbing the slippers. Martin had hoped to harvest real rubies from the shoes so he could fence them.

Much to Martin’s chagrin, though, another crook who dealt in stolen goods informed Martin that the “rubies” were actually glass, and worth nothing on their own. Martin, who had never seen The Wizard of Oz and who was unaware of their value as a treasured pop culture item, got rid of the slippers two days later.

The FBI recovered the slippers during a sting in 2018, after someone else tried to claim an insurance reward on them, but Martin wasn’t arrested for the theft until last year. The FBI has never disclosed how it tracked down the slippers, which remain in the agency’s custody.

Martin’s defense attorney Dane DeKrey said in a memo that an unidentified former mob associate tempted Martin to steal the slippers, even though Martin had been crime-free since his release from prison almost 10 years prior to the theft.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 29th, and both the defense and prosecutors are recommending a lighter sentence of time served for Martin, who is in hospice care now with a life expectancy of less than six months.

The stolen pair were one of several Garland wore during filming of the classic 1939 musical. Only four authentic pairs are known to still exist, however. The slippers were insured for $1 million, but federal prosecutors put the current market value at about $3.5 million. At the time of the theft, the slippers were on loan to the Minnesota museum from memorabilia collector Michael Shaw.

Two of the remaining pairs can be found at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and at the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the last is with a private collector.