Empire State Building suicide (1947)

Codex99 has provided a nice piece of research on the life and death of the young woman in this famous photograph.

Evelyn McHale

This detail from a photo by Robert C. Wiles was published as a full-page image in the 12 May 1947 issue of Life Magazine. It ran with the caption: “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.”

Evelyn, still clutching a pearl necklace, looks disarmingly placid and composed – as if simply asleep. Around her, however, the broken glass and crumpled sheet metal of a car roof show the brutally destructive evidence of her 1050 ft jump. Some 60 years later the photo remains as haunting and affecting as when it was first published.

Evelyn Francis McHale was born 20 Sept 1923 in Berkeley, California. She was the sixth child (of seven) of Vincent and Helen McHale.¹

 

Around 1930 Vincent accepted a position of Federal Land Bank Examiner and the family moved to Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter Helen left the family for unknown (although apparently material) reasons. They were divorced and Vincent took custody of the children. Later he moved the family to Tuckahoe, New York were Evelyn attended high school.

After high school Evelyn joined the Women’s Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson, Missouri. After her service it was reported that she burned her uniform.

Evelyn then moved to Baldwin, New York to live with her brother and sister-in-law and took a job as a bookkeeper with an engraving company.²It was here that she became engaged to Barry Rhodes, an ex-GI studying at Lafayette College in Easton Pa. They had intended to be married at Barry’s brothers house in Troy, NY in June 1947.

On 30 Apr she visited her fiance in Easton presumably to celebrate his 24th birthday and boarded a train back to NYC at 7 a.m., 1 May 1947. Barry stated to reporters that “When I kissed her goodbye she was happy and as normal as any girl about to be married.”

 

Of course we’ll never know what went through Evelyn’s mind on 66 mi train ride home. But after she arrived in New York she went to the Governor Clinton Hotel where she wrote a suicide note and shortly before 10:30 a.m. bought a ticket to the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.

Around 10:40 am Patrolman John Morrissey, directing traffic at Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, noticed a white scarf floating down from the upper floors of the building. Moments later he heard a crash and saw a crowd converge on 34th street. Evelyn had jumped, cleared the setbacks, and landed on the roof of a United Nations Assembly Cadillac limousine parked on 34th street, some 200 ft west of Fifth Ave.^3,4

 

Across the street, Robert C. Wiles, a student photographer, also noticed the commotion and rushed to the scene where he took several photos, including this one, some four minutes after her death. Later, on the observation deck, Detective Frank Murray found her tan (or maybe gray, reports differ) cloth coat neatly folded over the observation deck wall, a brown make-up kit filled with family pictures and a black pocketbook with the note which 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.”⁵

Her body was identified by her sister Helen Bronson and, according to her wishes, she was cremated. There is no grave.

 

After Wiles photograph was appeared in Life it was widely republished in a number of photography anthologies and became one of the iconic images of the 20th century. It was the only photograph he ever published. Andy Warhol later used the photo in his Suicide (Fallen Body) serigraph, part of his Death and Disaster series (1962-1967):

 

 

1. Much of Evelyn’s life story as presented here is based on research by Kathy Mechan and is used by kind permission.

2. Kitab Engraving Company, 40 Pearl Street, Baldwin, New York.

3. Evelyn’s suicide was picked up by the International wire services and was widely reported the next day in many newspapers: “Empire State Leap Ends Life of Girl, 20.” New York Times. 2 May 1947: 23,“Afraid to Wed, Girl Plunges to Death from Empire State.” Chicago Tribune. 2 May 1947: 4 and“Doubting Woman Dives to Death.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2 May 1947: 1. Here is a sadly 2-bit Xerox version of a photo released by the family and used by the wire services:

 

 

4. Since the Empire State Building was constructed in 1931 some 36 people have jumped from the building, including 17 from the 86th floor observation deck.

Evelyn was the 12th suicide from the building and the sixth to clear all of the setbacks. She was one of five people in a three week period to attempt suicide from the observation deck. In response a 10-ft wire mesh fence was installed and guards were trained to spot potential jumpers. After the barrier was installed people just jumped from other parts of the building, usually from office windows. The most recent suicide, however, was a 23-yo Yale student who managed to scale the observation deck fence on 30 May 2010.

5. The suicide note was reported in “Girl Who Leaped to Death Planned Wedding in Troy.” The Times Record (Troy, N.Y.). 2 May 1947: 1,17. The striked sentences were crossed out by Evelyn.

6. “Picture of the Week.” Life. 12 May 1947. See also: Maloney, Tom (ed). U.S. Camera, vol 2. New York: Morrow, 1948, as well as several Best of Life collections.

 

8 Oct 2009, updated 18 Apr 2011 ‧ Photography