Evelyn McHale: The Story of Life and Death

May 12, 1947 in the magazine Live was published photo of a beautiful girl. The model froze in an elegant pose, but her eyes were closed. It seemed that this picture was taken by a talented photographer within the framework of another interesting fashion project. But this is not so. In fact, the photo was posthumous. It depicts the 23-year-old Evelyn McHale, who committed suicide by jumping from a 300-meter height.

Biography Evelyn: childhood

Evelyn was born on September 20, 1923 in California. When the girl was seven years old, her family moved to Washington, DC, because her father was invited to the position of an expert of the federal bank.

Relations between Evelyn's parents did not go well. The reason was in the mother, who may have had a mental illness. At one point she just collected things and left the house, and seven children remained under the tutelage of her father.

Service in the army, moving and work as an accountant

Evelyn grew up as an ordinary child, but after school she had an obsessive, strong desire to serve in the army. This idea McHale implemented immediately. However, not everything in the army went smoothly. After serving in Jefferson, Missouri, the girl publicly burned her military uniform.

After this, Evelyn moved to Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. There she settled in an apartment with her brother and sister. Evelyn McHale, whose biography is presented by many sources as a list of dry facts, after several interviews was able to get a job as an accountant in a medium-sized company. After that, a fateful meeting awaited her.

Meeting with Barry

In New York, Evelyn met Barry Rhodes. He was a student at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and it was there that the young man soon left, because the next semester began. Despite the long separation, the relationship between Barry and Evelyn was very warm. In June 1947, young people were going to get married. But the plans and dreams of a happy life were not to be fulfilled.

The last meeting of lovers

April 30, 1947 Evelyn went to Barry in Easton. The young people spent a day together, and on May 1, early in the morning, the girl took a train to New York.

Barry himself, after learning about the tragedy, was depressed and dumbfounded. The young man said that he had not noticed anything strange in his behavior. Evelyn rejoiced in life and seemed happy, like any girl who will soon have a long-awaited wedding. Perhaps Barry would not have let her go then to New York, he knew that that farewell kiss on the platform was the last ...

Step into the abyss

Why Evelyn decided on that day to commit suicide, is still not exactly known. It is established that upon arrival in New York the girl went not to her home, but to the Clinton Hotel. It was there that she wrote her suicide note, and then went for a ticket to the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

The girl climbed to the 82nd floor and from there stepped down into the abyss.

White scarf and note

A light white scarf, floating steadily down from the Empire State Building, was spotted by a patrolman named John Morissy. According to him, immediately he heard a noise and rushed to the building to see what happened.

Beautiful and peaceful in her death, the girl lay on the roof of a Cadillac, standing on the 4th street, about 200 meters from Fifth Avenue. Passers-by, witnesses of this suicide, were shocked. The death of such a young woman was depressing and at the same time frightening.

Investigating the case McHale was engaged in detective Frank Murray. He climbed the Empire State Building to see why Evelyn McHale rushed from the observation deck. There he discovered the things of the girl - her neatly folded coat and brown handbag, in which was the death note. In it Evelyn asked forgiveness from her relatives and expressed her desire to be cremated. She did not want to be cried for, to be remembered, so there was no need for a place of worship. The girl also wrote that even though the wedding with Barry was planned for the beginning of the summer, she knew that she could not marry him and become a good wife. Evelyn seemed that she was too much like a mother. Perhaps she did not want her children to experience what she had experienced in the past.

Evelyn McHale: the most beautiful death

David Wiles, the beginning photographer, was on the day next to the Empire State Building. It was he who made the picture, which was published in "Life", and then got into many other publications. It depicts Evelyn, after his death lying on the roof of a Cadillac. She herself is calm and serene. She's beautiful. On the same tragedy, only glass fragments and twisted metal around testify.

This picture became a cult. He shows death frighteningly beautiful and at the same time inevitable and merciless, such as it is.

Further events

The body of Evelyn, which remained so beautiful after the fall, was cremated by the relatives, thus fulfilling the last will of the deceased. It is known that during the transportation of remains to the morgue, it was not possible to preserve their integrity. The reason for this was a shocking force, the blow, because of which the insides of the girl literally became liquid.

Graves at Evelyn, as you might guess, no. There is no place where her family could come to mourn the care of a young beauty. He could not bring flowers to the tombstone and Barry.

Rhodes, by the way, after graduating from college, he moved to Florida. He never married.

Death of Evelyn McHale in art and music

Photo dead girl on the roof of the car sold in the press in millions of copies of newspapers and magazines. Something in him attracted people, as if there was some magic in death, elusive, inexplicable. This picture now attracts to itself as something unexplored. McCain knows little about the causes of death, so many people try to "look at" from the photo, what became the true prerequisites for what happened. There is also a color version of this photo, no less beautiful than the original.

It is noteworthy, however, that the young photographer who captured Evelyn at that time did not become a famous master of his craft. About his work the world has not heard, and exhibitions with his participation have not been conducted.

Interestingly, the fact that other photos of this deceased girl remained a little. They are only in the family album Evelyn McHale. The photo, when it was made, has a single copy of the press. His then provided for the publication in "Life" native Evelyn.

The cult photo, taken after the death of the girl, took as the basis for his collage, the famous American artist Andy Warhol. This work was called Suicide, the Fallen Body, and was part of the series "Death and Catastrophe", consisting of four paintings. The cycle was published in the 60s of last century.

In the new century, a pop band from Portland Parenthetical Girls recorded a song called Evelyn McHale, dedicated to the tragedy of a notorious girl.

Empire State Building - a skyscraper of suicides

The Empire State Building in the time of McHale was the tallest building in New York. That is why suicides have been frequent here.

So, McHale was the twelfth in a row. In the three-week period, then, in April-May 1947, there were five suicides, the case of Evelyn was one of them. Of course, this attracted public attention, and the authorities decided to somehow secure the building. On the observation deck of the 86th floor a special net was installed, and guards were trained to visually identify people who are on the verge of suicide. It helped, and suicides with falls from the observation platform for a while stopped. But even further people came and came here to settle scores with life. Only now they chose not the observation deck of the 86th floor, but the windows of the offices of the upper floors.

Noteworthy is the case of a failed suicide at the Empire State Building. Elvita Adams in 1979 jumped from the same viewing platform, but the strongest gust of wind brought her back. The girl flew into the window on the 85th floor, and the only consequence for her was a fracture of the hip.

However, 36 people still brought things to an end, and their sad stories are forever associated with the Empire State Building. It is inseparable from the skyscraper and the most beautiful suicide in the world, committed by Evelyn McHale.