Katherine McHale

Slaughterback married and divorced six times—one of her husbands was Jack Slaughterback—and had one son, Ernie Adamson. It is disputed if Ernie was an adopted child or born to her out of wedlock.

Slaughterback was a nurse during World War II and served in the Pacific Theater. She lived in El Paso, Texas for a few years.She died on 6 October 1969, and was buried in Mizpah Cemetery in Platteville, Colorado. On her headstone, her name simply reads "Rattlesnake Kate," per her request. She was survived by her son , two grandsons, and two great-grandchildren.

On 28 October 1925, Slaughterback singlehandedly killed 140 rattlesnakes. Slaughterback and her son Ernie were on horseback headed to a lake near her farm. Hunters had been there the day before, and she was hoping to find harvested ducks left behind. However, she instead found over 100 migrating rattlesnakes. She shot the snakes until she ran out of ammunition for her .22 caliber Remington rifle, at which point she grabbed a nearby sign (allegedly, it said "No Hunting") and bludgeoned the remaining snakes to death. Of her ordeal, Slaughterback later said:

Katherine McHale Slaughterback (25 July 1893 - 6 October 1969), popularly called Rattlesnake Kate, but also known as Kate Garner, was a woman from Colorado. She garnered fame for an incident in which she killed 140 rattlesnakes.

Katherine McHale Slaughterback was born on 25 July 1893 (or 1894) to Wallace and Albina McHale in a log cabin near Longmont, Colorado. She would go on to attend nursing school at St. Joseph's School of Nursing and move to Hudson, Colorado. She also had skill as a taxidermist. She frequently wore pants instead of dresses, which was unusual for a woman at the time.