Evelyn McHale bipolar disorder. Evelyn McHale: A Story of Life and Death. Biography of Evelyn: childhood

Methods of suicide - is it possible to leave beautifully

(2nd version of the title of the article)

This material is prepared exclusively for people who want to commit suicide. We strongly do not recommend reading this material for people with increased sensitivity, as well as minors, pregnant women, and the sick.

Pathologists do not agree with the fact that a person is a single whole.

(Valentin Domil)

Some people may think that suicide can be a beautiful or even heroic act. A person imagines how friends, relatives, and maybe enemies around a beautiful coffin will tear their hair and sprinkle it with ashes from what they didn’t save, didn’t save. And then, perhaps, they will remember him and grieve: “Why did the person die? What is our fault? Oh, what a tragedy!..” And the body itself will be fragrant, and only a thin trickle of blood from the corner of the lips will glamorously flow down the pale, beautiful face.

It's a pity for such people. They really don't know what they are doing. What actually happens is...

Poisoning

In 1944, the very famous Hollywood actress Lupe Vélez, thirty-six, decided to commit suicide. A person of a creative profession, she wished to die beautifully in the prime of her beauty and glory. She thought for a long time and decided to execute one beautiful script. Surrounding her bed with a sea of ​​fresh flowers, she washed for the last time, put on her favorite blue negligee, and then slowly washed down a bunch of pre-prepared pills with expensive cognac and lay down on a luxurious bed, waiting for death to come.

But things did not go according to plan, as a few minutes later the body's natural reaction to the poisoning occurred, and she began to vomit uncontrollably. Very quickly and a beautiful dress, and the floor under her bed turned out to be in vomit. Jumping off her bed, knocking over the flowers, she quickly ran into the bathroom. There, she slipped on the contents of her stomach and hit her head on an Egyptian onyx toilet, severely injured. She still managed to kneel in front of the toilet, but then lost consciousness and eventually choked on her own vomit. They found her all dirty, smelling terrible, and even with her head in the toilet. In Hollywood, after that, they finally realized that poisoning as a way of suicide is not at all aesthetic.

This case has a very characteristic picture for poisonings. The gag reflex, despite any measures to suppress it, no one can control.

And to calculate all the nuances of the impact of a certain poison on the unique body of a particular person in such a way as to achieve the desired result, even specialist doctors will not always be able to. Even a carefully calculated dose can give unpredictable results. So don't try. Otherwise, like this actress, there is every chance of choking on your own vomit in agony, and, much more likely, you will remain disabled for life.

If you are taken to the hospital, they will fix you with towels, having previously stripped naked. The spectacle is reminiscent of footage from a psychiatric ward for the violent. The tubes protruding from the mouth (after intubation of the trachea and insertion of the probe into the intestine), neck (after a tracheostomy - cutting the trachea) will complete the picture.

The process of dying can continue for several long and extremely painful days, during which a person will suffer wildly. He will be detoxified, washed, but the poison will continue to be absorbed by the body and perform its destructive effect in it. In this case, the gag reflex will not go away, and the dying person will lie bound, on a soiled bed.

If the suicide nevertheless dies without waiting for help, then his relatives will see a corpse with vomit in his hair, in feces, in cadaveric spots, with a characteristic fetid odor and signs of varying degrees of decomposition ...

In general, the "beauty" is extraordinary. The dramatic effect that the suicide may have hoped for in his romantic illusions will be clearly blurred. It is naive to think that the person who finds it, will call an ambulance, help put the corpse in a bag, then drag it somewhere, will have some good memories of the suicide.

Hanging

Hangmen are also far from cute. And death, if it comes, is not at all the same as it is imagined. After all, at first a rather long agony will come, accompanied by convulsions, in which the gallows will hit nearby objects, leaving bruises, abrasions, fractures, bruises on the body. Later, the sphincters of the anus and urethra will open, and all the contents of the intestines and bladder will gush under the hanging corpse, leaving him literally in the shit. There is a puddle under the corpse, on the corpse itself there are cadaveric spots, especially on the legs, where blood flows, a strangulation furrow on the neck, and all this with the smell of an indescribable amber with the main note of shit.

On the corpse, after the blood drains from the head, where it created increased pressure during the agony, they will most likely find severe hematomas, hemorrhages in the subcutaneous tissue, legs of the pectoral muscles and neck muscles, and, of course, cadaveric spots.

The neck of the corpse is deformed due to a vertebral fracture. When examining the oral cavity, you can see the color of the mucous membranes, which has a rather creepy hue. But even more frightening people are a terrible grimace and eyes that often crawl out of their sockets. Such a puffy-eyed corpse can not be called pretty.

And of course, the most characteristic detail of this method of suicide can be said to be a highlight - a blue tongue sticking out to one side, which they simply cut off in the morgue and then stuffed into the stomach. Why in the stomach? Why sew it back on? Corpses do not speak - they do not need a language.

Jump out of the window

After the jump, a person can turn into "minced meat". Although it is very likely that this jump will lead to a wheelchair. And maybe even to a vegetative existence until the end of days. There are no guarantees here.

Let's consider the first option. "Adventures" will begin in flight, when the suicide in a stepped fall will hit balconies, walls, trees, and other obstacles, leaving not only teeth, parts of clothing, but even parts of the body on them. When landing, the remaining teeth, as well as fragments of the body, can scatter in all directions, and the ugly toothless mouth will fill with blood.

The bones that the blow breaks will come out for the view of others, and the brain, as the most water-saturated (90%) part of the body, can first scatter, and then spread over a very long distance. The internal organs and their contents will fall into the dust and dirt along with the brains, which, of course, will not add romance to the surrounding landscape.

All this can be seen by children, and the sight of a corpse, blood, individual organs and entrails with their contents can cause irreparable harm to the psyche of children.

As usual, a crowd of people will gather at the corpse - to discuss and condemn. No one will admire your "feat". And they will not be imbued with sympathy for the dead. Onlookers will be especially impressed with the deformation of the skull. I hit my head, and I can’t make out where the nose is, where the eyes are, where the ears are.

In a mortuary, it will be very difficult for such a body to give a believable shape. Reconstruction of the human body, as a result of which it will be possible to look at it without horror, is a very expensive undertaking. So, if the relatives do not have a large amount of money, or if there is no professional of the appropriate level in the morgue who has a great desire to reconstruct all this, then it is preferable to put the corpse in a bag, and the bag itself in a closed coffin so as not to injure those present at the funeral.

cutting veins

If someone suddenly thinks that it is possible to romantically die by cutting his veins, then he must clearly understand that even if he succeeds in losing consciousness, agony will begin, convulsions will reduce his face, snot and drool will flow uncontrollably, and terrible sensations Suicide will be tortured for a long time. If this happened in the bath, then those who found this drooling body will see an absolutely white corpse in the blood, and due to the relaxation of the sphincters of the anus, also in their feces.

Naturally, if the act of suicide takes place in a warm room and the summer season, then the picture will be “decorated” by numerous flies, as well as the gigantism of the corpse, maceration, and other changes that are characteristic of drowned people if the corpse lies in the water for a time sufficient for the manifestation of these signs.

For those who come in, the sight is so shocking that all other methods of suicide simply pale in front of this picture! Pale abomination, stench, red water with floating clots of blood and feces...

It's good that it's not easy to kill yourself in this way.

Drowning

The sight of a suicide who still manages to drown himself is horrendous. The corpse usually floats up after some time, which is due to the processes of putrefaction with the release of gases, such as hydrogen sulfide. The surfaced body is usually much larger in volume (a giant corpse) and does not at all look like a person in life. To say that the corpse of a drowned man looks terrifying is to say nothing. A huge corpse with changed proportions of the face and body, often swollen with gases, gnawed by fish and crayfish, covered in leeches, mud and algae, looks, of course, terrible.

On it one can usually see dark purple cadaveric spots, persistent white or light pink finely bubbling foam around the openings of the mouth and nose, maceration, that is, swelling, wrinkling and subsequent rejection of the skin from the body (“bath skin”, “washerwoman skin”, "glove of death", "sleek hand"). The timing of the manifestation and development of maceration depends on the temperature of the water. For example, at a temperature of 14-16 ° C, it starts after 8 hours. That is, first from the fingers, then from the hands, and then from the rest of the body, pieces of skin begin to exfoliate and separate. And after 10-20 days, hair begins to fall out. So, if a dead body “manages” to swim so much, then it has a chance to go completely bald.

When staying in water, the corpse is also overgrown with algae. This is a cyclical process: the algae on the corpse are completely renewed every 3-4 weeks. It should also be said that even after drowning, the body of a drowned person may be subjected to further traumatization. The causes leading to the occurrence of post-mortem injuries in the water are very diverse: impacts on the ground, random objects and parts of water structures located in the reservoir, blows with propellers, hydrofoils and other parts of ships, as well as traumatization with gaffs and various improvised means used in searches and removing the body from the water. But the biggest damage is usually caused by representatives of the aquatic fauna: fish, crayfish, aquatic insects, leeches, etc.

In addition, often forensic experts find particles of silt, algae and in the respiratory tract. And the venous system is filled with liquid blood with plankton in it (protozoa, some coelenterates, mollusks, crustaceans, fish eggs and larvae, larvae of various invertebrate animals), which has penetrated into almost all tissues and organs. Plankton is also found in other internal organs (kidneys, spinal cord, etc.). It is the types of unicellular organisms, crustaceans and other representatives of the rich aquatic fauna found inside the body and their relative quantitative content that will indicate not only the fact of drowning, but also the specific reservoir in which it occurred.

Pulling out and decorating such a corpse on the spot may please and even bring pleasure only to necrophiles.

And, of course, loading and taking away such a body, which often does not fit on a stretcher, is not a pleasant task for normal people, just like simply contemplating such a corpse. And for those who will bury, even more so.

Headshot

When blood and brains flow or stick to the wall along the wall, and parts of the skull, fatty tissues and other pieces that used to make up the head are scattered around, then to see this picture, and even more so a disfigured corpse, which may have no teeth, and the incoming hole is significantly less than a huge exit, extremely unpleasant. This species injures everyone, except perhaps forensic scientists. It happens that pets (dogs, cats, etc.) cannot recognize the owner in such a disfigured form, and begin to taste it. A cat's mouth smeared with blood after tasting the owner's brains is also not a sight for the faint of heart. For example, one of the authors of the article saw a cat that tasted the contents of the skull of the owner, who ended his life with a shot in the head. Naturally, insects (cockroaches) and rodents (rats, mice) also do not refuse such a suicide gift.

A gunshot wound in the head area leads to almost complete disfigurement of the face, especially the orbital areas, due to the action of powder gases that practically tear the head from the inside.

After a headshot, there is rarely an opportunity to bury the body without causing confusion and horror to those present at the ceremony. If the skull was not damaged (which is extremely rare, more often the head generally scatters to the sides), then you need to pay a very substantial amount to the pathologist so that he gives what remains after the shot, more or less like a head. But, of course, even after that, the man in the coffin is not very charming.

Shooting at himself, in addition, creates a lot of problems for other people who will suffer undeservedly. Collecting parts of the head in pieces in a plastic bag, and then removing and washing away blood, mucus, and lymph will not be pleasant for them. In any case, there will be a serious investigation into where the weapons came from, and there will be no rest for the survivors.

There is one more feature. First, people don't know where to shoot. Secondly, the skull is a pretty strong thing, and the bullet can change its direction. There is a high probability that the person will remain severely disabled.

The reaction of others to the corpse

A separate conversation about how others relate to the spectacle of violent death. As we have already said, except for those who like to look at corpses, for everyone else, the sight of the dead body of a suicide does not cause pleasant sensations, but causes the opposite, the easiest of which is disgust. The psyche of many people, especially children, who saw such terrible things, will be irreparably traumatized. Such pictures do not evoke sympathy for the suicide even among their loved ones.

Almost every design of such an incident is not complete without gossip of condemnation, moralizing of neighbors and random people.

So, if during your lifetime you suffered from, as it seemed to you, an unfair attitude towards yourself, from the fact that, in your opinion, you were not recognized, did not understand, then after such a terrible death it is unlikely that you will be treated better. Most likely, just the opposite, they will find confirmation of the justice of the attitude that was.

The setting of the incident is also not the same as in the movies. To establish the time of death, a thermometer is stuffed into the rectum of the corpse right at the scene of the incident. It is required to measure the temperature at least 2-3 times with an interval of 1 hour. All this time, the corpse lies on public display without underwear with a thermometer in the anus. At the same time, other places are also exposed, describing the injuries on the suicide. Yes, some abnormal onlookers enjoy this, which cannot be said about witnesses, other normal people, and especially about the relatives of the suicide.

It is especially unpleasant for them that they are forced to clean up the consequences of suicide, make repairs, wash damaged things. And cleaning up vomit, urine and feces, then collecting pieces of the body, washing away blood and mucus can fall out not only to relatives, but also, for example, to janitors ...

The stretcher on which the corpse is laid is always dirty with stains and dried blood on the tarpaulin. It seems that they are never clean.

Even professional orderlies will not carefully and with a mournful look carry and carry on a gurney what used to be the body of a person who himself gave up life. They will not shed tears, but will treat him like a waste tissue, of which the person who provided them with extra extremely unpleasant work used to be.

Agree that it will be quite fair. If you yourself treated your own body, while the soul was still in it, so dismissively, then why should the people whom you loaded with this hard work treat it with more respect?

 ( Pobedish.ru 886 votes : 3.54 out of 5)

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During the 84 years of the existence of the “suicide skyscraper” (as the 102-story skyscraper of the Empire State Building in Manhattan is called), 38 people have jumped off it. One case has been called the “Most Beautiful Suicide” for almost seventy years, and two can safely be called the “Ugliest Suicides.”

View of New York from the Empire State Building

"The most beautiful suicide" - with such a headline appeared on May 12, 1947, LIFE magazine. The body of 23-year-old Miss Evelyn McHale, who jumped off the Empire State Building on May 1, 1947, was filmed by a bystander four minutes after the fall.

"Under the Empire State Building rests Evelyn McHale in a grotesque coffin, from a car roof crushed by his body "- the caption under this photo in LIFE

The girl jumped off the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, landing on the roof of a UN limousine parked at the curb. Her beautiful face kept a serene expression, her hands in snow-white gloves clutched a pearl necklace, and her legs folded into a pose characteristic of relaxation.
There was no blood or external injuries on the body, although an autopsy showed that inside it had turned into jelly.

It was never established what exactly prompted Miss McHale to jump from a skyscraper - there were no obvious problems in her life, she was engaged, and during the last meeting with her fiancé she looked quite happy.
Evelyn's neatly folded coat, her makeup purse, and a death note in which she wrote that she could not be a good wife, and her fiancé would be better off without her, were found on the observation deck.

Empire State Building Observation Deck

Evelyn McHale became the twelfth of 36 Empire State Building suicides. After five more people decided to follow her example over the course of three weeks in 1947, a protective barrier was erected around the site, and guards began to be taught to visually identify potential suicides.
After that, people began to jump either from other parts of the skyscraper (usually from the windows of offices), or overcoming the protective barrier on the observation deck. The most recent suicide occurred there on May 30, 2010, when a 23-year-old student was able to climb over the fence and jump down.

But not everyone is so “lucky” at the Empire State Building. Part of the potential suicide bombers managed to detain the guards, and two suicide bombers jumped from a height of three hundred meters, and managed to stay alive.
On December 2, 1979, Miss Elvita Adams and April 25, 2013, an unknown young man jumped from the observation deck of the 86th floor, but a strong gust of wind brought the bodies to the ledge of the lower 85th floor, from where they were dragged away by security with bruises and fractures (girl - hips, and the young man - ankles). The two never repeated their attempt to jump off the Empire State Building, if only because they were sent to psychiatric hospitals after the surgical ward of the hospital.
In psychiatric hospitals, I hope they were able to convey to them that simple idea that it is better to be ugly alive than beautiful dead.

And an old American joke on the subject.
Two men are sitting at a bar on the top floor of a skyscraper. One of them, rather drunk, turns to the other and declares:
- You know, I found that if you jump from this building in this place, then strong currents of air will definitely carry you back.
The bartender grimaces, and the second man retorts, "That can't be."
The first one opens a bar window, jumps from a skyscraper, and after a few seconds calmly ascends back. His neighbor does not believe his eyes and also decides to try - jumps out of the window, flies by the thirtieth floor, twentieth, tenth ... And plops down on the sidewalk.
The bartender pours whiskey to the first man:
- Well, you're an asshole, Superman, when you drink ...

Saved

I was prompted to write this post by a blogger who shared a link to a material about Evelyn. I thought that I should write a post about Evelyn, because many people have seen her photo, which floats on the Internet from one site to another, but almost no one has a real story does not know and perhaps this post will slightly clarify the situation.

This piece of photograph by Robert Wiles was published full page on May 12, 1947 in Life magazine. Below the photo was the caption: "Bottom of the Empire State Building, the body of Evelyn McHale lies quietly in a grotesque coffin, her fallen body pierced through the roof of a car."

Evelyn, still clutching the pearl necklace in her hand, looks disarmingly serene and calm - as if she were just sleeping. However, around her there is broken glass and a crumpled sheet of metal from the roof of a car, which is proof of how destructive and ruthless her jump was. 60 For years, this photo remains as impressive and breathtaking as it was when it was first published.

Evelyn Francis McHale was born on September 20, 1923 in Berkeley, California. She was the sixth child (of seven) in the family of Vincent and Helen McHale.

Around 1930, Vincent accepted a position as an examiner in the federal bank and the family moved to Washington. Shortly thereafter, Helen left the family for unknown reasons. Vincent and Helen divorced and Vincent took custody of the children. He later moved the family to Tuckahoe, New York, where Evelyn went to high school.

After high school, Evelyn joined the Women's Army Corps and was assigned to Jefferson, Missouri. At the end of her service in the corps, Evelyn burned her uniform.

After that, Evelyn moved to Baldwin, New York, to live with her brother and half-sister, and also get a job as an accountant in a company. Here she met Barry Rhodes, with whom they became engaged. They were going to get married in Troy , New York in June 1947.

On April 30, Evelyn traveled to Easton to visit her fiancé to celebrate his 24th birthday, and after that took a train to return to New York by seven in the morning. On May 1, 1947, Barry told reporters that when he kissed her goodbye Evelyn was happy and quite adequate, like any girl who is about to get married.

Of course, we will never know what Evelyn's thoughts were as she drove home. But after her arrival in New York, she went to the Governor Clinton's hotel, where she wrote a suicide note and, shortly before 10:30 in the morning, bought a ticket to the viewing platform on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.

Around 10:40 am, Patrolman John Morrisey noticed a white scarf floating smoothly from the top floors of the Empire State Building. A moment later, he heard a crash and saw a crowd of people on 34th Street. Evelyn jumped and her body landed on the roof of a parked limousine on 34th Street, 200 meters west of Fifth Avenue. The girl was only 23 years old.

Across the road, Robert Wiles, a student and photographer, also noticed the commotion and rushed to the limousine, where he took some pictures 4 minutes after Evelyn's death. Later, on the observation deck, Detective Frank Murray found brown (or maybe gray, police reports vary) a coat neatly folded on the observation deck, a brown make-up bag containing family photographs, and a black notebook with a note that said the following:

I don't want anyone from my family or even see my dead body. Could you cremate my body? I ask you and my family - do nothing for me and don't remember me. My fiance asked to marry him in June. I don't think I can be a good wife to anyone. My fiancé will be much better off without me. Tell my father that I have too many similarities to my mother.

Evelyn's body was identified by her sister, Helen Brenner, and as requested, it was cremated.

After this photo appeared in Life magazine, many publications continued to publish it and thus made this picture one of the iconic photographs of the 20th century. Andy Warhol later used it for his series "Death and Catastrophes" (1962-1967 ).

Evelyn's family provided the newspapers with one of Evelyn's home photos:

Since the Empire State Building was completed in 1931, 36 people have committed suicide by jumping from it, including 17 others who have jumped from the 86th floor of the observation deck.

Group Parenthetical Girls dedicated a song to Evelyn:

On May 12, 1947, a photograph of a beautiful girl was published in Live magazine. The model froze in an elegant pose, but her eyes were closed. It seemed that this picture was taken by a talented photographer as part of another interesting fashion project. But it's not. In fact, the photograph was posthumous. It depicts 23-year-old Evelyn McHale, who committed suicide by jumping off a height.

Biography of Evelyn: childhood

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

Relations between Evelyn's parents did not go well. The reason was the mother, who may have had a mental illness. At one point, she simply packed her things and left home, and seven children remained under the care of their 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. McHale implemented this idea immediately. However, not everything in the army went smoothly. After serving in Jefferson, the girl publicly burned her military uniform.

After that, Evelyn moved to Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. There she settled in the same 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 as 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 destined to come true.

The last meeting of lovers

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

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

Step into the abyss

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

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

White scarf and note

A light white scarf floating down the Empire State Building was spotted by a patrolman named John Morrissey. 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 parked on 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 frightening at the same time.

McHale was investigated by Detective Frank Murray. He climbed the Empire State Building to find out why Evelyn McHale threw herself off the observation deck. There he found the girl's belongings - her neatly folded coat and brown purse, in which the suicide note lay. In it, Evelyn asked for forgiveness from her relatives and expressed her desire to be cremated. She did not want to be wept for, to be remembered, and therefore there was no need for a place of worship. The girl also wrote that although the wedding with Barry was planned for early summer, she understood that she would not be able to marry him and become a good wife to the guy. Evelyn felt that she was too much like her mother. Perhaps she did not want her children to have to go through the same thing that she herself had in the past.

Evelyn McHale: The Most Beautiful Death

David Wiles, an aspiring photographer, was outside the Empire State Building that day. It was he who took the picture that was published in Life, and then got into many other publications. It depicts Evelyn lying on the roof of a Cadillac after her death. She herself is calm and serene. She is beautiful. Only fragments of glass and twisted metal around testify to the tragedy that occurred.

This picture has become iconic. He shows death as frighteningly beautiful and at the same time inevitable and merciless, such as it is.

Further developments

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

Evelyn has no graves, as you might guess. There is no place where her loved ones could come to mourn the passing of a young beauty. Couldn't bring flowers to the headstone and Barry.

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

Death of Evelyn McHale in art and music

The photo of the dead girl on the roof of the car was distributed in the press in millions of copies of newspapers and magazines. Something in him attracted people, as if there was some kind of magic in death, elusive, inexplicable. This picture still attracts to itself as something unknown. Little is known about the causes of McHale's death, so many are trying to “examine” from the photo what became the true prerequisites for what happened. There is also a color version of this image, no less beautiful than the original.

It is noteworthy, however, that the young photographer who captured Evelyn then did not become a famous master of his craft. The world no longer heard about his work, and there were no exhibitions with his participation.

It is also interesting that few other photographs of this deceased girl have been preserved. They are only in the Evelyn McHale family album. The photo, taken during her lifetime, is in the press in a single copy. It was then provided for publication in Life by Evelyn's relatives.

The iconic photograph taken after the death of the girl was taken as the basis for his collage by the famous American artist. This work was called “Suicide” (Suicide. Fallen Body) and was part of the cycle “Death and Disasters”, consisting of four paintings. The cycle was published in the 60s of the last century.

Already in the new century, the Portland pop group Parenthetical Girls recorded a song called Evelyn McHale, dedicated to the tragedy of the infamous girl.

Empire State Building - suicide skyscraper

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in New York during McHale's time. That is why suicide cases here were quite frequent.

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

Notable is the case of a failed suicide on the Empire State Building. Elvita Adams jumped from the same observation deck in 1979, but a strong gust of wind brought her back. The girl flew into the window on the 85th floor, and the only consequence for her was a broken hip.

However, 36 people nevertheless brought the matter to an end, and their sad stories are forever connected with the Empire State Building. Inseparable from the skyscraper and the most beautiful suicide in the world, committed by Evelyn McHale.

We talked about the strange, eye-catching, sad beauty of the death of a young woman, Evelyn McHale, captured in a photograph taken by a Life magazine reporter on May 1, 1947.

Today I would like to return to this story and add to it. But first, a few words must be said about the place where the tragic events unfolded. Empire State Building.

Empire State Building in 1931

This building was opened in 1931 and in those days was rightfully considered a marvel of engineering. The tallest building on the planet was built in just 16 months during the Great Depression. The observation deck of the Empire State Building attracted a huge number of spectators, so that in the first year of operation of the building, its owners charged a fee for visiting. From the decks of the 86th and 103rd floors, on a clear day, you could see Connecticut.

Women on the 86th floor of the observation deck of the Empire State Building in the 1940s

But very soon the building acquired a different, tragic, fame. At some point, during the darkest and most bleak periods of their lives, people, having decided to part with their lives, preferred to throw themselves down from the observation deck on the 86th floor. Only one woman survived a suicide attempt - throwing herself down, her body was picked up by a powerful gust of wind and literally thrown back onto the site. Other attempts were successful, and all who stepped down were subjected to a long fall from a height of more than 1,000 feet, and then instant death on the sidewalk.

Evelyn Francis McHale was born in Berkeley, California on September 20, 1923. She was the sixth of seven children born to Vincent and Helen McHale. In 1930, the McHales moved to Washington, but the family broke up there, Vincent retained custody of the children and moved to New York.

Evelyn Francis McHale

After graduating from university, Evelyn joined the Women's Army Corps stationed in Jefferson, Missouri. As she later told her friends, after the end of the service, she burned her uniform and decided to reunite with her brother, who lived with his wife on Long Island.

At that time, she got a job as an accountant in a firm located on Pearl Street, in the financial district of Manhattan. Then Evelyn met a young man, a former pilot named Barry Rhodes, who studied at Lafayette College, located 90 minutes from New York, in Easton, Pennsylvania.

We don’t know for certain how their relationship developed, but in the spring of 1946 Evelyn was at the wedding of her lover’s brother, and after the ceremony she tore off her festive dress with the words: “I never want to see this again!” The dress, as well as the military uniform, was subsequently burned.

On April 30, 1947, Evelyn took a train from New York to Easton to congratulate Barry on his 24th birthday. The next morning, Barry walked his fiancee to the train station and kissed her goodbye. He later said that Evelyn looked happy, as any girl who is about to get married looks like. Their wedding was to take place at Brother Barry's house in June of that year.

Governor Clinton Hotel, 1932

Upon her arrival in Manhattan, she left the train station and, passing the Governor Clinton Hotel at 31st Street and 7th Avenue, received a ticket to the Empire State Building. She entered the hotel room briefly, only to write a note, which, in addition to what has already been mentioned, contained a request that her body be cremated and not arrange a magnificent farewell and funeral. Evelyn folded the note and hid it in her purse, along with a few dollars, cosmetics, and a couple of family photos.

At 10:30 a.m., she walked up to the Empire State Building and purchased a ticket to the famous 86th floor. There she took off her coat, placed it along with her purse on the floor by the railing, and jumped.

Entrance to the Empire State Building, 1931

That morning, Patrolman John Morrissey was directing traffic at 34th Street and 5th Avenue. At 10:40 a.m., he noticed a fluttering white scarf descending from the side of the Empire State Building. A moment later, there was a terrible roar that sounded like an explosion. Immediately, passers-by began to gather on 33rd Street to see what had happened.

On the mangled, crumpled, like cardboard, roof of a car, a girl in pearl beads lay on her back. If it were not for the mangled Cadillac, which belonged to a representative of the United Nations, one would have thought that the girl was sleeping peacefully, her appearance was so peaceful. But 23-year-old Evelyn McHale was dead. A photograph taken just 4 minutes after the incident by a young student, Robert S. Wiles, found himself across the street from the scene, and stunned by the beauty of the girl, will subsequently go around the world, and thanks to Andy Warhol will become a piece of art, a pop culture icon: a symbol of tragic beauty.

Andy Warhole

The suicide of Evelyn McHale was the fifth in the last three weeks in May 1947, committed with the help of the Empire State Building. After McHayel's death, high fences were erected on the observation decks of the skyscraper, and caretakers and security guards of the building began to be trained to recognize potential suicides among visitors.

Photo of Evelyn by Robert S. Wiles and published in Life Magazine, May 1947

Evelyn's sister, Helen, carried out the will. Evelyn McHale's body was cremated, and her last resting place does not exist.