History’s Most Famous Suicides, From Artists To Politicians

Evelyn McHale, The Most Beautiful Suicide

Apart from her extraordinary death, McHale led a very normal life.

McHale was a member of the Women’s Army Corps while in high school. Later she would relocate to Baldwin, N.Y. and meet her fiancé Barry Rhodes while working as a bookkeeper in Manhattan.

McHale went to visit Rhodes in Pennsylvania the day before her death. He later claimed that everything was alright when she left.

Despite her fiancé’s belief that all was well, on May 1, 1947, McHale went to the observation deck on the 86th floor of New York City’s Empire State Building. She removed her coat, placed it neatly over the railing, wrote a short suicide note, and then jumped.

Evelyn McHale’s dying wish was that no one would see her body, but unfortunately, this final request would not be fulfilled. In fact, the exact opposite came true.

A photo taken four minutes after her body met with a limousine by photography student Robert Wiles would cause McHale to die in infamy.