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Well, do we have a show lined up for you today on Kingdom Pursuits? We have Jeff Keane. He's the author of Under the Rainbow, and Jeff has also published a series of Christian fiction books that are highlighting really unnamed biblical figures, including the Domaniac and the woman caught in adultery. So welcome, Jeff! Hello, Robbie.
How are you today? I am excited to hear more about your story. Apparently, you were a firefighter and lost part of your foot and all sorts of things, right? Yes, all sorts of things. Absolutely, yes. That was in New York a very long time ago, back in 1989.
I was serving my hometown as a volunteer firefighter. That's an entirely different story and an entirely different book. That's coming out soon. And I'm trying to remember what the—you have a nickname that goes along with the something of the leg— Yes, Peg Leg Penman. The Peg Leg Penman, yes, there you are. Very unusual. So I am definitely intrigued on a number of things, but the book we're talking about mostly today is called Under the Rainbow, and it's a nonfiction book on the ruby slippers, right? Yes, it's something I never thought that I would be motivated to create, but there was just too much at stake for me not to have told this story when it needed to be told. Really? So could you give us some piece of—I mean, some part of what that is?
Absolutely. So as many people might be aware, the famous ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the 1939 motion picture of The Wizard of Oz, they were stolen, one of the pairs that was in museum in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005. And it was a blow to, you know, The Wizard of Oz in the Judy Garland fandom, and they disappeared for 13 years until a chance happening at a swimming pool in a condominium in Florida where none other than my father-in-law, who is a retired Secret Service agent, was chatting with his neighbor, famous criminal defense lawyer Joe Friedberg from Minneapolis, who was his—they were buddies for a few years just, you know, in Florida, nowhere—nothing to do with Minneapolis or Judy Garland or anything. And they had a conversation that led to my father-in-law helping get the ruby slippers, recover the ruby slippers from the original thief, or at the time the holder of the slippers. So if it wasn't for my father-in-law's intervention and mediation with the insurance company and the investigators, the shoes may never have been recovered. Wow.
And so the shoes were undoubtedly saying, there's no place like home. That's quite a story. That's quite a story. Like, man, man, you can see that there's a lot to be told here and you're gonna want to listen in.
I know you immediately have me totally intrigued. It's a piece of the puzzle, yes. So clearly the people that stole the slippers didn't steal them with the intention to sell them because, I mean, you know, obviously, what was the motivation of them stealing the slippers? Well, the person who was charged, Terry Martin, he was indicted and charged and sentenced last, I believe it was January.
And there's some other people who are also lined up to be charged as well. But he thought that, he admitted, which is quite unbelievable, he admitted that he thought the rubies were real. Can you believe that? Oh my goodness.
He must not have done his research. They looked literary, right? Very beautiful, yes. And so he thought that they were real rubies and it's part of why he stole them. Yep. And it's so much deeper and more complicated than that. I mean, the FBI has been involved in this. After I released the book, they even came to interview me, the FBI. And they said, how did you even know this information?
How did you find out about this, you know, who are these people? And I said, whoa, I'm fiction writer to start. Okay, you mentioned I have a couple of fiction novels out there.
I'm working on my third one, but biblical fiction, but he, you know, he was, he was wondering, and I said, I just used my fiction writing, you know, skills to paint a picture for the first chapter. So that's all, you know, I thought they were going to put the cuffs on me or something in there for a minute. They're like, where did you get this top secret information? Well, right, right. God gave it to me in the creative process. It's exactly, exactly how that, how that works. And so, wow.
And of course, through these other books, you had the publishers and whatever. And so, how long ago did you start on this project? And did you feel God pointing you to that project? Now, do you mean under the rainbow?
Right, right, under the rainbow. Oh, yes. Yeah, this kind of interrupted my God-driven project with the biblical fiction, it came at a time when my father-in-law retired Secret Service agent, Michael and Sevella, he, he, he was, his health was failing and, and he, he wanted the truth to get out there. So it was, it was just several months from, from April of 22 to, to when he passed away, which was late August. That's how long it took me to write the book.
Now, of course, there was some after his passing, but, but he was happy that the truth is going, was going to be known, you know. Oh, I, I can imagine. And so, did you feel God tugging on your heart to do that? Oh, absolutely. You know, when anybody calls upon you to, to help them, you're going to weigh that, you know, against your other responsibilities and, and you're going to do what you can, particularly if it's a family member and, and, and, and particularly if it's a family member who, whose days are numbered. I mean, all of our days are numbered, we don't know when God's going to call us, but he was, he was very ill. And so I, I did feel this weight upon my heart and I needed to put my other novel writing aside and, and, and jump into this project. So, you know, without destroying the book for anybody, you know, but I can't help but wonder, and I don't want to destroy the book for anybody. Obviously, they need to, they need to get it.
They can go to kingdompursuits.com and see Under the Rainbow. That's the name of the book. But your, your father-in-law wanted to get the truth out there. Can you speak to why he wanted to get the truth out there? Was there something there that he felt needed, the, the general public needed to know? I'm not talking about the truth itself, but there must have been a motivation that he was feeling based on what he came to understand.
Right. So, so after his multitude of attempts at working as a, as a mediator between all the entities involved, the lawyer and the lawyer's client, who was the holder of the shoes and the insurance company and, and the local police department, it started, the whole ordeal started to, to affect him and to the point where he was trying to separate himself and he was kind of over the whole thing. In the book, I allude to the curse of the ruby slippers and everybody who is involved with them somehow suffered one way or another, you know, for example, there was a, the original person who found the shoes in the back lot of the MGM studios back in 1970, he passed away just a couple of years after selling them at auction and the woman who was auctioning them for, in New York. Jeff, I hate to jump in, but that music means we got to go to a break. So when we come back, we're going to find out about the curse of the ruby slippers, I knew nothing about, and we're going to, we got some riddles coming your way. Of course, we're going to play shenanigans. That's all coming your way on Kingdom Pursuits. with Jeff Keeney today, and have fun. We'll be right back.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And today we've got a poster child for that.
We got Jeff Keeney. He is an author of several Christian books. But also today we're talking about his book Under the Rainbow, right? It's a story about what happened with these ruby slippers. But before we get to the curse of the ruby slippers, which we're definitely wanting to know more about that, but we got to, we got to, you know, play a little shenanigans. So speaking of rainbow, right, yes, it's time to play shenanigans.
And Jeff, I know you've never played shenanigans before, but today's your chance. So it's a bit, it's basically bad jokes and you get a chance to see if you can guess it. And based on the topic of rainbow today, what do you call a rainbow, Nick? If you think about this or Jeff, whoever has the answer, what do you call a rainbow without any color? It's just a rainbow. No ruby, red, no green, no Roy G. Biv.
It's just a boring plain color. Close. Oh, I'm close.
You're close. Oh, I got it then. A plain bow. All right. Thank you for the teamwork.
Teamwork. It's called a plain bow. Yes. All right. I was caught stealing a rainbow once. Where did I go? I don't know.
I, I went to prism. It was, it was a light sentence. It was a pretty light sentence. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I got it. I just sat there.
I had to refract on what I had done, you know, there you go. So here's a little tough one for you, Nick. Okay.
All right. How much does a rainbow way? How much does a rainbow way?
I don't know. I feel like it's pretty light, pretty light. There you go. Wow. It is.
It's pretty light. Yeah. Okay, think about it. All right.
Yeah. Very good. That was well done. Well played. You're doing, you're really, you're getting good at this. Nick.
I'm afraid if I keep this up here. So I'm thinking you guys would get this one because it's easiest to the bunch, but I like it. Which cable TV provider has the best rainbows? Which cable TV provider has the best rainbows? NBC.
They do have them. Peacock. That's close.
What do you think? Peacock? It's a cable TV provider. Spectrum.
Spectrum. Yeah, there you go. There you go. All right. Now we're going to get to the actual riddle where you can call in and win today at 866-348-7884.
This is a live show. We would love for you to call in and win. And all you have to tell us is which rainbow spotter was the best fin financier in the Bible. What rainbow spotter was the best financier in the Bible. He floated his stock while the whole world was in liquidation. Oh boy. So if you want to win today, you just call in and tell us which rainbow spotter was the best financier in the Bible.
He floated his stock while the whole world was in liquidation. And if they can do that, Nick, tell them what they'll win. Absolutely. Yes, you'll be winning a prize from our Kingdom Pursuits prize vault. If you know the answer to Robbie's riddle, call us at 866-348-7884.
That's 866-34-TRUTH. Yes, and we are fully expecting the lines to light up. Don't worry, we will make room for you. We have a prize vault full of like hope in the morning books and we've got all sorts of wonderful books. Hopefully someday we'll even have Under the Rainbow. Who knows?
But anyway, we're so appreciative to have Jeff Onan with us today. So yeah, I had no idea there was a ruby slipper. So somebody found those slippers in the 70s in the back lot of Universal or whatever?
Yes, in a dusty loft with the name Women's Clothing or Women's Wardrobe. And there were five pairs actually. But each one has its own story, but nothing as well known as these traveling pair as they're called slippers. So and every like I said, but like I was saying before the break, every person who's come into contact with them has had some sort of negative effect.
Sounds like it. Yeah, I mean even you know, we look at Judy Garland's life and all everyone who knows is a fan of hers knows her unfortunate demise at such an early age of 47 years old. And then just a few months later, the shoes were found, you know, so another odd coincidence.
Yeah, it really is. And so as we know now that they're not really rubies, they were sequins. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw one of those pairs is at Universal Studios in Florida, isn't it? It was at the old MGM Studios and Disney. Oh, that's where I saw it.
Yeah, which is now Hollywood Studios. And though that was another pair that was a different pair. I've seen those since moved on. Those have moved on and I'm still doing okay.
I didn't touch them. So, but getting back to your father-in-law that was definitely played a key role in negotiating all that went on apparently to get these back where they belong. There was a truth that he wanted to get out about these and yeah, and so what can you give us something true?
Absolutely. The lowdown is that he with he the FBI tricked him. I tricked him and lawyer Joe Friedberg. The statute of limitations was had ended was over. And so, you know, they just wanted the shoes back at any cost. So they were going to say anything they could to Michael and Sabella and the Joe Friedberg lawyer to to get these shoes where they could get their hands on them.
And that's what happened. So nobody was charged. However, they were threatening extortion charges because there was a reward for the shoes and, you know, negotiated with the insurance company. But obviously, my father-in-law was not interested in that he had.
He didn't need the minimum amount of money that was going to come as his share of this. You know, he he they raid his home down here in Florida and they took all of his computers. And it was very frightening for for he and his new wife at the time. And so and they never got anything back.
You know, they never received any of the materials back. That was back in 18 2018. And that's when the shoes were recovered, but they were recovered in Minneapolis and from the hands of Joe Friedberg in a coffee shop and a sting operation. So there were two simultaneous sting operations. And and that's that's the truth he wanted. He wanted he wanted everybody to know what had happened, what his part was, and that had he not intervened over this one plus year period in negotiations that the shoes man may have been destroyed or still lost. Wow. Yeah. And so was the lawyer involved in tricking him as well?
No, no. The lawyer was was also trying to get the shoes back, but he was he was on the other side. He was working with my father-in-law was a middleman. He the lawyer was working, you know, with for his client who was the holder of the shoes, which.
We still don't know quite who that was at the time. Wow. Yeah, it's there's so much deep, you know, background here that it's still coming out, actually. And so wasn't weren't they like sold at auction or something for some crazy amount of money? They're going to be. They're actually traveling around the world right now. They're in the hands of an auction company because they were returned to the original owner, not the original owner, but the owner who had owned them when they were in the museum, when they were on loan to the museum. A man named Michael Shaw, who lives in California, a Hollywood collector, and he he's going to auction them off to the traveling around the world. They're going I think they they're the fourth cities are New York, London, Paris, and maybe Tokyo or L.A. or something like that. And so when they make their rounds, they're going to be auctioned off. And they're there. They are the most expensive.
Tricy Hollywood memorabilia in history. Yeah, yeah, it's quite a story. And so, you know, being a Christian, a Christian writer, where do you see God in this equation? Truth.
Simply put, very easy to answer. You know, the truth must come out. The truth must prevail. And that's that's what we were going for here.
Yes, I was helping my father in law. But at the same time, just pulling away the veil and just exposing it all for everyone to know this, this this just incredible piece of the story of the whole Wizard of Oz memory, you know, world that it has created, you know. It's just part of it. It's an important part of it.
The shoes hold obviously not spiritual power, but just emotional magic for so many, you know, that it was just an important thing that he did. And he wanted he wanted his truth, which, you know, to be clear for everybody to see. So that's that's it. You know, that's that's that's my my spiritual motivation was just true. Right. And the truth would set, you know, a lot of folks free.
And so what an amazing journey it sounds like it's been even for your own family, because there's some people out there don't want to get at the truth. So we get back. We got Yolanda is in North Carolina. She's got an answer to our rainbow spotter. And we got more coming up with Jeff. Stay tuned.
You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. Today, we are featuring Jeff Keeney, the author of Under the Rainbow, which has all sorts of connotations to the ruby slippers that were used in the epic movie, maybe the most epic movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz. And so we're going to get back to that in a minute.
But first of all, speaking of the rainbows, we got Yolanda, who's going to tell us, you know, who or which rainbow spotter was the best financier in the Bible, who floated stock while the whole world was in liquidation. Hi, hi, how are you? Good. How are you? I'm wonderful. I'm wonderful.
So you got any guesses for me? The only person I come up with is Noah. It was a flood of jokes that we could talk about Noah, aren't there? Oh, yeah. So it's amazing. Little did Noah know that he would start, you know, just a whole like the most epic movie of all time with, you know, The Wizard of Oz over the rainbow song, right? Right.
And so I'm grateful for your calling in and winning today. And so what do you think about the ruby slippers? Did you know all that stuff? No, I had no idea. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, I had no idea. I think they were real.
Yeah, I that that's pretty funny that the person that stole them actually found that. So anyway, I am so grateful for your call and you have a great I guess sort of fourth of July weekend. Oh, thank you. You too. All right. Thank you so much for calling to that.
That really means the world to me. God bless. Bye-bye.
God bless you too. Bye-bye. So Jeff, you know, I was I was thinking about it that this guy that actually stole them. Apparently when he realizes man, these things are sequins. Apparently he must have gone somewhere to somebody to say, what do I do with these?
Is that what exactly exactly? And the story that he tells is that once he found out he brought him to a jeweler, I believe or something or a fence or something like that. And once he found out that they were not real rubies, if they indeed were sequins and glass beads on the bow, he buried them in his yard. That's his story for years. Unbelievable, but that's also hard to believe. So why did I can understand like here you got or fortunately they were in a waterproof container of some kind.
Correct. What why did they dig him up or was there that part of the story? Well, I can we can only assume that the statute of limitations was over and there was a reward given to them by a super fan. Someone had given him $1,000,000 reward for any news recovery of the slippers. The insurance company owned the slippers. And they had already paid the original owner Michael Shaw $800,000 because they were insured for a million. I don't know why he didn't get the full million.
I'm not sure how they aren't sure that insurance payment worked out. But so yeah, he I guess he was failing in health and was trying to get some money out of it. That's that's pretty much the gist of it. Wow.
And then all those then clearly the government was involved in a lot of people in, you know, trying to make sure that somebody got all the money that they could possibly get out of the situation, even if they had to run over people's lives in order to do that, right? Correct. Yes.
They took over the situation and kind of made a mess of my father-in-law's life in the last couple of years. He was with us. So. And it sounds like the attorney of the holder of the shoes and the holder of the shoes. That's another story in there somewhere that apparently the person that had stolen the shoes, then somehow put them in somebody else's hand or was that actually the attorney? Yes.
No, that's correct. It was another person who's indictment is already been given his sentencing. He has a sentencing arraignment.
Jerry Saliderman has his name in I think August or September or coming up in the next few months. So that'll be in the news. And he's the one who apparently received them from from the thieves and had them buried in his yard. So but there were just some weird ties that the police department didn't pick up on at first. Like, for example, the the cleaning lady in the museum.
Her husband was a very good friend of Terry Martin, the actual thief, and they never thought to put tie this these relationships together back in 2005 when they were stolen. So it's just it's just a really odd situation. Yeah, but clearly made for a great book. And so, you know, as you probably a movie. Yeah.
Yeah, the it might be right because, you know, obviously The Wizard of Oz became such an epic movie in there. So many things I understand that it am I right that somebody was hanged themselves and that it's actually in one of the scenes. Oh, no, that actually was somebody put a fake video out of that. So that was definitely fake. Oh, good.
I should have snoped it. They said one of the munchkins committed suicide, but thank God that that never happened. So that was just somebody being they actually did some trick photography on a VHS tape and then leaked it out. So that's crazy. Well, I'm glad I know I feel better about that. At least that didn't have to do with the Ruby slipping cursed at the little munchkin it. Oh, goodness.
That's the slippers. But meanwhile, let's talk about something more fun. Like your next project, like the one you're working on the Christian book you're working on. Yeah, so it's the third in the trilogy. I mean, pretty much this is what my feedback is from people who read my books. My first two books are, quote, I will never read that Bible story the same way again, end quote. Because what I do is I I take an unnamed character who met Jesus.
In the New Testament, obviously, and their life. You know, they were saved, they received their salvation, no matter what their situation, whether they were demonically possessed with a legion of demons, which is really strange because I watched the February 11th Bacon Loves Everyone episode with Tina Neely. And they mentioned the demoniac in that in that episode. So which is the waterlogged bacon. You remember that joke?
Yeah. So that's that's what that's what the second story is about. It's about the man who was possessed by those by the legion of demons. But so I take these unnamed characters and I give them a name. I give them a back story. How did how did they become an adulteress? How did they become a leper? You know, how did they become a demonic or demoniac?
And then I and then what happens after? Because, you know, a lot of people who don't understand salvation. They don't know what it's really like. It's actually harder to live for Jesus than before.
You know, the darker path is always the easier path, right? So what are the challenges and adventures that happen to these characters after their brief moment and brief mentioned in in the Bible? So that's so cool. That is really, really, you know, I do a thing called Christian car guy theater and I write screenplay or whatever radio dramas for that. And so one time I wrote one along those same lines that I called nae whom's Matt. He was the man that got carried in, you know, let down through the roof. Absolutely. And I took some poetic license because I thought was interesting. That obviously the people carrying him had some kind of back story like how he got hurt.
Right. And you know that actually I wrote it that he stole these guys boat and these people had forgiven him which that day was, you know, ceiling somebody's boat was their livelihood. So, you know, I love that whole idea and it really does change the way you look at certain things. I think that's absolutely wonderful and we're excited to hear more about that. We got one more segment coming up with Jeff. And if you feel like calling in, you're welcome to do that at 866-348-7884. We'll be right back with a little bit more Kingdom Pursuits. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom.
We are enjoying our time with Jeff Keene. He's the author of Under the Rainbow which has to do with the ruby slippers, which we've talked a lot about in this show, which if you want to find out more about that book, if you go to kingdompursuits.com, you can see it right there, the main page today. It's called Under the Rainbow by Jeff Keene and you can order it right there. And of course, if you do, authors love it. If you will rate their book, it means so very much to them. If you'll, you know, go back, give it however many stars and all those kind of things to really give them some feedback. It's a wonderful thing that Amazon does and I'm sure Jeff would really appreciate that.
Absolutely. He's also written several other Christian fiction books. That book on the ruby slippers is a nonfiction, but the Christian fiction books he writes on about unnamed people in the Bible. And so you wrote the Bible about the demoniac and about the woman caught in adultery. Are you saying the next one is about the leper? Yes, it's about the leper who was cleansed and Jesus told him to go and make the proper sacrifice, you know, to the to the rabbi at the but but and don't tell anybody else, but then there's going to be a twist. So, you know, apparently the story gets out and you know, that was the Gospel of Matthew 814. It was also in Mark and Luke as well, but I mean, you know, they're all stories of salvation, forgiveness, their adventures. There's a little bit of romance.
And they're just wonderful stories that just make you rethink about. What are the names of the other books? Well, Pericope is the first one. That's the name I gave the adulteress.
It's one now? Pericope. Pericope. It's like it's a it's Greek. It means that you cut around because her story, the Pericope of Adulterra in the Bible, in John 8 to 11, right? Yeah, she some some people argue that that story doesn't doesn't belong there. And when I was in seminary, I wrote a textual criticism that argued for its inclusion. And that's what actually that's when God laid it upon my heart to write more about about this character. Wow.
So at Pericope, that's really cool. And I learned something just right there. And the second book about the demoniac. What's his name? His name is Yamin.
And that's Hebrew for starboard. He's a he's a fisherman's son on the Sea of Galilee. And he loses his parents to to disease. He becomes distraught and jealous and angry at his situation. And so he opens his heart, not to God, but to demonic possession. Yeah, that's cool.
The idea of Yamin is like Ben Jamin, right? That the idea of the son of my right hand because the starboard is on the right side of the boat. Yes, correct. Correct. That's really cool.
He ends up fighting with pirates on the Mediterranean Sea and goes all the way to Malta and and then finds his way back to to the Sea of Galilee where he encounters Jesus. Right. And I've heard of some amazing sermons on, you know, Jesus calms the storm on the way to meet to heal this guy. Yes. Yes.
Directly beforehand. And then he heads back across again. Yes. He knew that he had to be there for some reason.
And the reason was was Yamin, you know, was to get this legion of demons. All right. That is so cool. And you know that the nice thing about writing those, right? God really takes you deeper into the actual scripture itself than you would probably have ever gone, right? Oh, so much so. And of course, you know, I don't change anything about the story in the Bible. That would be against, you know, our right, right, right teaching. So but I just build on both sides of it and and they both books have won awards.
And I'm just I'm so proud of of what God is, you know, led me towards here. So Perkipi, Yamin and the one coming out on the location. Pardon me. Lokesh. Lokesh is his name. He's the he's the leper.
Yes. And where did that name come from? Lokesh means whisper in Hebrew because leprosy actually ends up affecting his vocal cords. And he can only speak in a whisper.
By the time he meets Jesus. That's interesting, because, you know, I did the Christian car guy show today on Whisper of Hope. Oh, wow. But but a coincidence of God wanting to remain anonymous. That's exactly right. So I, I love that.
So Lokesh and you're right in so many ways that that the shame that was involved in that is really not understandable, almost in our current, you know, understanding of disease. Right. That is right.
Yes. They had to separate themselves from society and they were looked upon as untouchable. And it was he had to leave his family. Very, very upsetting to to in that time and day and age.
And there are still people in the world today who have to do the same thing in their countries. You know, that's that's so cool. Again, the book coming out is Lokesh. And then you got Yamin and Prickapee are the other Christian books. And of course, the book Under the Rainbow, which is there at KingdomPursuits.com.
If you click on the author, you'll find his other books. How fun is that? And again, thank you so much, Jeff. It was so much fun having you on the show today. Keep up the great work, my friend. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for listening. You got so much truth coming at you. You got Encouraging Prayer with Dr. James Banks coming up. It's a really good episode. And that's followed by The Masculine Journey starts here now at 12 o'clock in Winston-Salem. And then it's time to man up with Nikita Koloff. So much truth on The Truth Network. This is The Truth Network.
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