Very Accomplished Thieves

On September 3, 2018, a rancher in Laredo, Texas, discovered a woman’s body shot execution-style on the side of the road. When investigators identified her as a local sex worker, their search for the killer took them into the darkest corners of the city. Then, after days of false starts and dead-ends, another body turned up, terrifying residents and leading law enforcement to conclude a serial killer is at large. More would die before a survivor finally came forward and identified the killer… but his motives proved as confounding as his crimes.

If the slippers were released from FBI evidence tomorrow, where would they go? Michael Shaw might buy them back. An auction house hoping to set a world record wants them, too. But some people think they should go back to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and stay forever.

The hosts explore connections between the theft of the ruby slippers and an infamous art crime known as the Rockwell Heist, orchestrated by master thieves in Minneapolis. They learn the identity of the man who returned the slippers, and the name of the person he claimed was responsible for stealing them in 2005. 

The FBI and Brian Mattson get their hands on a pair of ruby slippers. But nothing is certain without the help of an expert conservator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. 

Detective Brian Mattson continues talking to the mysterious caller who says he knows where the missing ruby slippers are. When the investigation stalls, Mattson takes a risk and calls a friend at the FBI for help. Law enforcement plots an elaborate sting in Minneapolis, to get the shoes back.

To find the stolen ruby slippers, detectives in Grand Rapids respond to every tip, no matter how strange. On the 10th anniversary of the theft, a clever publicity stunt leads to a lucky break.

Judy Garland left her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota when she was four. She became one of the most famous movie stars in the world, but her life was infamously tinged with darkness. Grand Rapids grappled with her legacy, unsure whether to honor or condemn her. When a pair of ruby slippers are stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, people suspect a local connection.

Despite being among the most iconic props in film history, the ruby slippers were once relegated to the trash heap. A man known as the "Robin Hood of Hollywood" saved multiple pairs, and they eventually became collector's items worth millions. When a pair is stolen in 2005, their owner comes under suspicion.

A thief steals a pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz from a museum in Garland's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Who took the slippers, and where did they go?

Do you remember the first time you watched The Wizard of Oz? Those famous red ruby slippers are some of the most iconic objects in Hollywood history that still bring back nostalgic memories every time they’re seen. They became a rare collector’s item worth millions. In the summer of 2005, a pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in the small town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. In No Place Like Home, C13Originals, a Cadence13 Studio, teams up with journalist Ariel Ramchandani and editor Seyward Darby for this documentary podcast to investigate a heist that dives into small town suspicions between local cops and the FBI, the fraught relationship between Grand Rapids and its most famous daughter, Judy Garland, and brings listeners inside the peculiar world of Hollywood memorabilia and the market for lost and stolen art. Although the shoes were eventually recovered, there are more questions left than answers. Who stole the shoes and where were they hiding for more than 13 years?