Evelyn McHale’s Most Beautiful Suicide
By: Alienworkshop
Tags: Photographer, History, Photos, Suicide, Photography

Evelyn McHale’s Most Beautiful Suicide

A photograph taken four minutes after her death has become the most iconic suicide photo in history

A traffic worker working at the intersection of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue saw a white scarf drifting down from the Empire State Building. Seconds later he suddenly heard a big collision and chaos on the road. People swarmed a limousine parked on the sidewalk. On top of that limousine, landed a woman’s body.

Photo by Cathy Williams on Unsplash

The Empire State Building skyscraper project ended in 1931. Behind the grand buildings at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, an estimated 36 people have committed suicide by jumping from the building’s observation deck. Some bodies were stuck in the section that juts out of the building (due to the design of the building which is not straight down), while some bodies were crushed onto the road.

But there was only one that landed on top of a car, in an unusual position. Her body doesn’t look like a suicide. The position and the look on her face look like a sleeping beauty. This is Evelyn McHale, the most beautiful and beautiful suicidal person ever.

Evelyn Francis McHale was an American bookkeeper person who committed suicide by jumping from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building on May 1, 1947. A photograph taken four minutes after her death by photography student Robert Wiles has become the most iconic suicide photo, also known as the most beautiful suicide.

Evelyn Francis McHale was born on September 20, 1923, in Berkeley, California. She was the sixth of seven children of Vincent and Helen McHale. Around 1930, Evelyn’s parents divorced, sources say, and her mother had mental health problems. Evelyn and her brother then lived with their father.

After finishing high school, Evelyn later joined the Women’s Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson, Missouri. It was reported that after her service was over, she burned her uniform. It is not known what exactly Evelyn’s motive was to do that.

After World War II, Evelyn moved to Baldwin, New York to live with her brother and brother-in-law. There she worked in finance at a company in Manhattan.

At a New Year’s Eve party in 1945, she met Barry Rhodes. Rhodes was a former student studying at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Rhodes also served in the army and aspired to be an engineer.

The couple had actually planned their wedding at Barry’s brother’s house in Troy, New York, which was planned to take place in June 1947. With the joy of being a bride and marrying a loved one, Evelyn somehow decided to end her life just a month before her wedding.

Evelyn’s high school graduation picture, 1942. Source: codex99

Evelyn McHale’s Suicide Chronology

On April 30, 1947, Evelyn left for Easton. She went to visit her fiancé Barry Rhodes to celebrate her 24th birthday. The next day on Thursday morning, she boarded a train to return to New York City at 7 a.m. on May 1, 1947.

Barry told the media crew who interviewed him that when the two were about to split up, he briefly kissed her and said goodbye. Evelyn seemed happy, normal as ever, nothing at all strange.

No one thought that in the girl’s head there was already a crazy plan. When she arrived at Penn Station around 9 a.m., Evelyn went across the street to the Clinton Hotel where she wrote a suicide note and walked two blocks east. There, the woman then purchased a ticket to the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.

At 11 a.m., a body landed on the roof of a Cadillac limousine parked about 200 feet west of Fifth Avenue. That body was none other than Evelyn McHale.

People scattered and roared towards the Cadillac. The atmosphere of the traffic flow became chaotic. Four minutes after Evelyn’s body landed on a U.N. limousine parked on the side of the road, a photography student named Robert Wiles ran across the street and took a photo of her. This photo will one day become the most beautiful iconic photo of suicide.

The photo shows Evelyn looking peaceful as if she was just asleep, lying in broken glass and steel. The dead Evelyn was seen holding a pearl necklace with her gloved left hand. Her legs seem neatly crossed. But all around her, shattered glass and metal shards on the roof of the car showed just how powerful the 1,040-foot jump was.

When police arrived at the 1,050-foot observation deck, they found a neatly folded suit and a small handbag belonging to Evelyn placed on the side of the fence. Also found were several family photos and a small notebook that appeared to be her will. The note read:

“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.”

In a note addressed to her sister it was more or less said that she was skeptical of marriage and felt that she could never be a good wife. She also said she wanted her body cremated.

Evelyn’s body was identified by her sister Helen Brenner and according to her wishes on her will, Evelyn’s body was later cremated with no memorial, service, or grave. Her fiancée, Barry, was known to have moved to Florida after the death. He never got married.

Meanwhile, the photo was taken on May 1, 1947, by Robert C. Wiles became very famous. Time magazine even called it the most beautiful suicide. Details of this photo by Robert C. Wiles were published as “Photo This Week” in the May 12, 1947 issue of LIFE Magazine.

After the Wiles photo appeared in LIFE magazine, it was widely republished in several photographic anthologies and became one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.