Evelyn McHale And “The Most Beautiful Suicide”
Wikimedia CommonsEvelyn McHale’s body on top of the limousine she landed on.
Apart from her extraordinary death, Evelyn McHale led a rather normal life. She was born in Berkeley, California in 1923 to parents Helen and Vincent McHale. Her parents divorced sometime after 1930 and McHale along with her seven brothers and sisters went to live with their father in New York.
McHale was a member of the Women’s Army Corps while in high school. Later she would relocate to Baldwin, New York, and meet her fiancé Barry Rhodes while working as a bookkeeper in Manhattan.
McHale went to visit Rhodes in Pennsylvania the day before her death. He later claimed that everything was alright when she left.
Despite her fiancé’s belief that all was well, on May 1, 1947, McHale went to the observation deck on the 86th floor of New York City’s Empire State Building. She removed her coat, placed it neatly over the railing, wrote a short suicide note, and then jumped.
Evelyn McHale’s dying wish was that no one would see her body, but unfortunately, this final request would not be fulfilled. In fact, the exact opposite came true.
A photo — taken four minutes after her body slammed into a limousine — taken by photography student Robert Wiles would ensure that McHale died in infamy.
YouTubeThe view of the 86th-floor observation deck.
McHale appears serene atop a United Nations limousine. Her face is calm as if she was just sleeping while cradled in a mess of crumpled steel. Her ankles are daintily crossed and her gloved hand rests on her chest, clutching her pearl necklace.
The photo of McHale has thus gone down in history as “the most beautiful suicide,” according to TIME. Artist Andy Warhol even used it as inspiration for his print, Suicide (Fallen Body).
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or use their 24/7 Lifeline Crisis Chat.
