Katherine McHale Slaughterback

Katherine McHale Slaughterback was born on 25 July 1893 (or 1894[1]) to Wallace and Albina McHale[2] in a log cabin near Longmont, Colorado. She would go on to attend nursing school at St. Joseph's School of Nursing[1] and move to Hudson, Colorado.[3] She also had skill as a taxidermist. She frequently wore pants instead of dresses, which was unusual for a woman at the time.[4]

Slaughterback married and divorced six times—one of her husbands was Jack Slaughterback[1]—and had one son, Ernie Adamson.[5] It is disputed if Ernie was an adopted child or born to her out of wedlock.[6]

On 28 October 1925, Slaughterback singlehandedly killed 140 rattlesnakes.[3] 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.[4] Of her ordeal, Slaughterback later said:

I fought them with a club not more than 3 feet long, whirling constantly for over two hours before I could kill my way out of them and get back to my faithful horse and Ernie, who were staring at me during my terrible battle not more than 60 feet away[3]

She was "frantic that [the snakes] would frighten the horse, and cause him to rear up and throw Ernie into the snakes."[7] After she returned to her farm, a neighbor learned of what had happened, which eventually led to a reporter coming to photograph and interview her. She strung the dead snakes together on a rope for the photograph, which became infamous. She would later make herself a dress, shoes, and belt from the snakeskins.[3] The dress, made from the skins of 53 rattlesnakes, was particularly famous. She claimed later that she received an offer from the Smithsonian Institution to buy it for US$2,000.[7]

Her story became popular and was written about it the New York Evening Journal. News of her exploits was reported as far away as Germany, Belgium, Scotland, France, England, Mexico, and Canada.[8]

Later in life, Slaughterback raised rattlesnakes, milking them for their venom and selling it to scientists in California.[3] Three weeks before her death, Slaughterback donated her famous rattlesnake skin dress to the Greeley Municipal Museum; Ernie donated more of her possessions after her death, including her Remington rifle.[4]

Slaughterback was a nurse during World War II and served in the Pacific Theater. She lived in El Paso, Texas for a few years.[7]She died on 6 October 1969,[2] and was buried in Mizpah Cemetery in Platteville, Colorado.[1] On her headstone, her name simply reads "Rattlesnake Kate," per her request.[4] She was survived by her son, two grandsons, and two great-grandchildren.[1]

Former member of The Lumineers and Colorado native Neyla Pekarek wrote a folk opera about Slaughterback called Rattlesnake. Pekarek was then commissioned by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to create a full musical from the subject matter.[6]