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The most beautiful suicide
On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.
The photo ran a couple of weeks later in Life magazine accompanied by the following caption:
On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. ‘He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody,’ … Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale’s death Wiles got this picture of death’s violence and its composure.
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beautiful
Comment by Dido — November 22, 2009 @ 4:36 am
It’s depressing that we care more about the death of a beautiful woman because she was a beautiful woman than anyone else, but alas we do.
Comment by James — January 22, 2011 @ 11:26 pm
I first saw is photo in a coffee table book at one of our family friend’s country home. It was winter and we had just come in from a long day of skiing and sledding.
I sat down in front of the fireplace and started to look through the book. I came across this photo and it just floored me. I was maybe nine years old at the time and all I could think about was how terribly sad that someone who could have had so much to live for would do such a thing. What caused her to do that? I later found out when I started to show serious symptoms of depression a few years later.
The photo has haunted me my entire life and I often think of it when I find myself in the depths of my own depression. I can see why she did it but it still hurts to see it here.
Yes, we are drawn to her because she was beautiful but it’s more than that. This is a suicide that was public, in the open for all to see. Most others, of beautiful and not so beautiful are not seen and so we don’t feel the same. This young lady affects us so because we can see that she was one of us. All I can do is hope is that perhaps someone who was going to do the same thing changed their mind after seeing the photo. Perhaps then her sad, sad end had meaning.
Comment by Andre — November 6, 2011 @ 4:55 am