On a Tuesday morning in April 1978, a gleaming red semi-truck pulled onto County Road 14 in Marshall County, Iowa, hauling two brand new John Deere tractors that cost more than most people in the county would earn in a decade. The driver had delivery instructions to the Patterson farm, a 640 acre operation that had been in the same family since 1889.
He was supposed to drop off a new John Deere 4440 and a new John Deere 4240 $14700 and $38,000 respectively. Total value $85,000 before tax at the main equipment shed. The driver had done this route before. He knew the farm. He turned onto gravel drive that led through a tunnel of oak trees toward the white farmhouse and the big red barn.
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