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The Death Of Evelyn McHale And The Photo Of 'The Most Beautiful Suicide'
Since the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931, at least 36 people have sought out the top floors of the building to take their own lives - with Evelyn McHale being perhaps the most infamous. On the morning of May 1, 1947, just before 11 am, McHale committed what became known as the "Most Beautiful Suicide.”
That morning, a traffic director who was working at the intersection of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue when he happened to look up and see a white scarf drifting down from the side of the Empire State Building. Then, suddenly, he heard a large crash, and chaos ensued within the streets. He then followed a crowd of passerbys to a limousine parked along the curb, upon which McHale's body was found
Despite the eerily uncertain circumstances surrounding her suicide, it is not McHale's death that has gained her such infamy. Instead, it's the way she was found: softly enveloped within the wreckage of the car, ankles crossed effortlessly, and face serenely calm as she clutched her necklace in one white-gloved hand. The morbidity of the scene was forever encapsulated in one photograph, depicting the seeming tranquility with which this woman met her end.
Forever captured on film, the Evelyn McHale photograph failed to answer one question: Why did Evelyn - a young woman who was newly engaged and who had a loving family - choose to end her life on that Thursday morning?
News Outlets Called Her Death 'The Most Beautiful Suicide'
Barely four minutes after McHale was found lying across the top of a limousine belonging to the United Nations Assembly, a young photography student by the name of Robert Wiles took the heartbreaking photograph that would forever memorialize the death of a woman who did not want to be remembered.
The picture and the suicide that preceded it by mere moments gained instant notoriety. This was primarily due to the photograph's depiction of her angelic repose - an image that was picked up by news and media outlets across the United States and led to her death being deemed "The Most Beautiful Suicide." TIME magazine used the photograph in a full-page spread describing the tragedy, making it the official "Picture of the Week" on May 12, 1947. The caption that was paired with the image was morbidly poetic:
At the bottom of the Empire State Building the body of Evelyn McHale reposes calmly in grotesque bier, her falling body punched into the top of a car.
She Was 23 Years Old And Newly Engaged
The events leading up McHale's death remain hazy and largely unknown. The days before she leaped from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, she had taken a trip to visit her fiancé, Barry Rhodes, and the couple was believed to have been in good spirits up until he took her to the train station early on the morning of May 1, at which point she traveled back to New York City. Rhodes stated that she seemed normal and happy, and that "[when he] kissed her goodbye, she was happy and as normal as any girl about to be married."
Their wedding was to be in June, and, after her death, Rhodes never married.
It is believed that McHale:
arrived at Penn Station around 9 am [and] went across the street to the Governor Clinton Hotel where she wrote a suicide note [and] then walked two blocks east where, shortly before 10:30 am, she bought her ticket to the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
She Was The 12th Person To Jump From The Empire State Building And The 6th To Reach The Bottom
Following the completion of its one-year-and-45-day construction project in 1931 (the fastest of its kind), an estimated 36 people have committed suicide by jumping from the Empire State Building's observation deck and neighboring floors. However, due to the building's unique design, many people do not reach the ground level and are instead caught by the setbacks tracing the perimeter. In 1947, McHale was the 6th person to have reached the bottom of the building, though a total of 12 had tried.
In the three weeks leading up to McHale's death, four other people had attempted suicide from the top of the building, and, as a result, a 10-foot-wide wire mesh blockade was put in place to deter jumpers. Sadly, this effort has been less than successful.
She Did Not Want People To See Her Post-Mortem
When police arrived at the 1,050-foot-high observation deck of the building, they found a neatly folded coat and a small hand bag placed off to the side of the railing, along with a collection of family photos and a small notebook that contained McHale's goodbye note, with some words scratched out:
I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family - don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiance asked me to marry him in June. I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies.
Unfortunately, her desire to disappear from this world unseen was ignored, as the image of her body has become one of the most widely recognized - and perhaps romanticized - pictures of suicide to date. However, her sister did recognize McHale's wishes and had her cremated.
She Served In The Women's Army Corps
McHale joined the Women's Army Corps at the Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, after she graduated high school. She is listed as office machine operator. Once her service ended, she reportedly destroyed her uniform with fire. There is little information documenting her motivation for ruining the clothes associated with her time in Missouri.
After her service, McHale moved to Baldwin, NY, where she lived with her brother and sister-in-law. She worked as a bookkeeper for the Kitab Engraving company located in Manhattan and met her finance Barry Rhodes at a New Year's Eve party in 1945. Rhodes had also served in the army and was working toward becoming an engineer. The couple planned to be married in June 1947, one month after McHale's passing.
She Was Skeptical About Marriage
McHale was apparently skeptical about becoming Barry Rhode's wife. She attended his brother's wedding as a bridesmaid in 1946, one year before her own ceremony was supposed to take place. After the wedding, Rhode's recalled that she tore off her dress and said, "I never want to see this again."
He further explained that, "She [worried] for some silly reason because she was afraid she was not good enough to be my wife. I thought I talked her out of that silly notion."
McHale said in her final note that she didn't think she "would make a good wife for anybody."
