Evelyn McHale

The Most Beautiful Suicide
	Robert Wiles , May 1, 1947
	Link to the picture; (please note copyrights )

This article is about suicide. For those at risk, there is a wide network of offers of help in which ways out are shown. In acute emergencies, the telephone counseling and the European emergency number 112 can be reached continuously and free of charge. After an initial crisis intervention , qualified referrals can be made to suitable counseling centers on request.

Evelyn Francis McHale (born September 20, 1923 in Berkeley , California , † May 1, 1947 in New York City , New York ) was an American accountant who, at the age of 23, jumped from the observation deck in her 86th year. On the 1st floor of the Empire State Building .

The resulting short after the impact of her body photo of her body lying on a depressed car roof, under the title "The Most Beautiful Suicide" ( "The most beautiful suicide ") is known and has become a iconic image become.

life and death

Evelyn McHale took her own life by jumping from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building .

After high school , McHale went to the Women's Army Corps in Missouri , where she worked as an office machine operator. After serving, she moved to live with her brother and sister-in-law in Baldwin , New York, and found a job as an accountant for a Manhattan company . On New Year's Eve 1945 she met the budding engineer and her future fiancé Barry Rhodes at a party. The couple planned to get married in June 1947.

The day before her death, McHale had visited her fiancé in Pennsylvania , who took her to the train station early Thursday morning, May 1, 1947, where she boarded a train to New York City. According to Rhodes, she appeared "normal and happy" when she said goodbye. McHale took the train to New York's Penn Station at around 9:00 a.m. and bought a ticket for the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building just before 10:30 a.m. From there, she jumped to her death just before 11:00 a.m. She was the sixth person to commit suicide by jumping off the Empire State Building since the building was completed in 1931. Her body landed on the roof of a United Nations limousine parked on the sidewalk . The loud impact caused a crowd. The photography student Robert Wiles, who was also joining, took pictures of McHale's body about four minutes after it hit the roof of the car.

The police later found McHale's coat, a handbag, family photos and a notebook with the following suicide note on the observation deck, the words of which had been crossed out: “I don't want anyone in or outside of my family to see any part of me. Could you cremate my body? I beg you and my family - don't hold a funeral or memorial service for me. My fiancé asked me to marry him in June. I don't think I would make a good wife for anyone. He's much better off without me. Tell my father I have too many inclinations for my mother. ”According to her will, McHale's body was cremated and she was not given a grave or memorial stone.

reception

Wiles' photo of McHale's suicide appeared as a "Picture of the Week" on full page 43 of the May 12, 1947 issue of Life magazine, which reads: "At the foot of the Empire State Building the rests Evelyn McHale's corpse quietly on a grotesque bier, her falling body hit the roof of a car. "

Ben Cosgrove described the picture in Time in 2014 as "technically rich, visually convincing, [...] downright beautiful" and McHale with the words: "Evelyn [...] looks to everyone as if she was resting or taking a nap, instead of lying dead in the midst of broken glass and bent steel. Everything about her pose - her gloved hand clutching her necklace, her gently crossed knuckles, her right hand with her gracefully curved fingers - suggests that she will be quiet for a moment, maybe thinking of her plans for later this one Day or dreams of your loved one. "

The photo became known under the title "The Most Beautiful Suicide" and has become an iconic image. Along with Malcolm Browne's photo of the self-immolation of the monk Thích Quảng Đức (1963), it is one of the most famous images of a suicide and has already been taken up several times in popular culture, for example by Andy Warhol in his work Suicide (Fallen Body) from 1962.

Web links

Evelyn McHale's biography and pictures on Codex99.com

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Kellie Kreiss: This Tragic Photograph Captured What Many Have Deemed The Most Beautiful Suicide. In: Ranker.com, August 29, 2019, accessed May 17, 2020.
↑ Original: “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. " Quoted from Kellie Kreiss: This Tragic Photograph Captured What Many Have Deemed The Most Beautiful Suicide. In: Ranker.com, August 29, 2019, accessed May 17, 2020.
↑ ^a ^b Ben Cosgrove: 'The Most Beautiful Suicide': A Violent Death, an Immortal Photo. In: Time. March 19, 2014, accessed May 17, 2020.
↑ Original: "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." Quoted from Teresa Lousa: Death Aesthetization in Contemporary Artistic Practices. In: Arte. April 2016, issue 28 (2), pp. 371–385, here: p. 376.
↑ Original: "Evelyn [...] looks for all the world as if she's resting, or napping, rather than lying dead amid shattered glass and twisted steel. Everything about her pose — her gloved hand clutching her necklace; her gently crossed ankles; her right hand with its gracefully curved fingers — suggests that she is momentarily quiet, perhaps thinking of her plans for later in the day, or daydreaming of her beau. " Ben Cosgrove: 'The Most Beautiful Suicide': A Violent Death, an Immortal Photo. In: Time. March 19, 2014, accessed May 17, 2020.
^ ^A ^b Teresa Lousa: Death Aesthetization in Contemporary Artistic Practices. In: Arte. April 2016, issue 28 (2), pp. 371–385, here: p. 376.

personal data
SURNAME	McHale, Evelyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	McHale, Evelyn Francis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American female suicide
DATE OF BIRTH	September 20, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berkeley , California
DATE OF DEATH	May 1, 1947
Place of death	New York City , New York

[Kreiss-1] Kellie Kreiss: This Tragic Photograph Captured What Many Have Deemed The Most Beautiful Suicide. In: Ranker.com, August 29, 2019, accessed May 17, 2020.

[2] Original: “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. " Quoted from Kellie Kreiss: This Tragic Photograph Captured What Many Have Deemed The Most Beautiful Suicide. In: Ranker.com, August 29, 2019, accessed May 17, 2020.

[Cosgrove-3] Ben Cosgrove: 'The Most Beautiful Suicide': A Violent Death, an Immortal Photo. In: Time. March 19, 2014, accessed May 17, 2020.

[4] Original: "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." Quoted from Teresa Lousa: Death Aesthetization in Contemporary Artistic Practices. In: Arte. April 2016, issue 28 (2), pp. 371–385, here: p. 376.

[5] Original: "Evelyn [...] looks for all the world as if she's resting, or napping, rather than lying dead amid shattered glass and twisted steel. Everything about her pose — her gloved hand clutching her necklace; her gently crossed ankles; her right hand with its gracefully curved fingers — suggests that she is momentarily quiet, perhaps thinking of her plans for later in the day, or daydreaming of her beau. " Ben Cosgrove: 'The Most Beautiful Suicide': A Violent Death, an Immortal Photo. In: Time. March 19, 2014, accessed May 17, 2020.

[Lousa-6] A ^b Teresa Lousa: Death Aesthetization in Contemporary Artistic Practices. In: Arte. April 2016, issue 28 (2), pp. 371–385, here: p. 376.