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Rebecca Ann Butts Hawkins was born 1797-1800 in Georgia and died in 1860 in California. In 1838, while living with her family in Jackson county, Missouri, Rebecca paid her neighbor Henry Garster $150 to murder her husband Williamson Hawkins. Rebecca had previously made two unsuccessful attempts of her own, with the assistance of her slaves Mary and Ned, to kill Williamson by poisoning his food. The murder was precipitated by 20 years of abuse that Williamson, a heavy whiskey drinker, had inflicted on Rebecca. During these years, Rebecca had not only endured Williamson’s beatings, but given birth to eight of his children and traveled with him to what was at the time the outer reaches of the American western frontier. Garster was tried for murder, found guilty and hung for shooting Williamson at home while he slept in front of his fireplace. Rebecca was also tried, found guilty of poisoning Williamson, and sentenced to five years in prison. But the governor pardoned Rebecca after receiving a petition requesting clemency for Rebecca signed by 351 prominent citizens of Jackson County, Missouri. Rebecca did not serve time in the Missouri prison and made a final move to California on the overland trail in 1850.