#robert wiles

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Edmond Simpson "Mother is Beside Herself" (BaptisteMondino-Motherwell-Wiles) (04-19)

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'The Most Beautiful Suicide': A Violent Death, an Immortal Photo

In May 1947, LIFE magazine devoted a full page to a picture now recognized as one of the most famous portraits of suicide ever made.

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On 1 May 1947, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.

A photography student, Robert Wiles, took a photo of McHale moments after her body hit a parked UN car and sold the picture to Life magazine, which ran the image as its “Picture of the Week” in its 12 May 1947 issue 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.”

McHale’s handwritten suicide note was found in her black handbag, sitting atop her neatly folded coat on the observation deck. “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.” (the lines “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.“ were crossed out). McHale was cremated as she requested.

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The body of 23-year-old Evelyn McHale rests atop a crumpled limousine minutes after she jumped to her death from the Empire State Building, May 1, 1947. Taken by Robert Wiles for LIFE magazine.