Do you know the story behind this tragic photograph?

Have you ever seen the image we'll talk about next? Known as “the most beautiful suicide, ” she shows the body of a 23-year-old girl named Evelyn Francis McHale - who took her life by jumping from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in New York. ). Check it out below:

Evelyn Francis McHale

The Most Beautiful Suicide (Reddit / Unresolved Mysteries / Robert Wiles)

According to Katie Serena of All That Is Interesting, Evelyn's photo was captured by a photography student named Robert Wiles on May 1, 1947, just 4 minutes after she landed on a United Nations limousine that collapsed. It was parked in front of the emblematic building and became one of the most famous suicide images in history.

Ordinary young man

According to Katie, although Evelyn's picture has become so famous - having stamped pages from famous magazines such as Time and even being used by Andy Warhol in one of her illustrations - there is not much information about the girl's life nor about the reasons that led her to commit suicide.

Evelyn Francis McHale

Evelyn in a 1942 photo (Codex 99 / Ancestry.com)

It is known that she was born in September 1923 in Berkeley, California, and was one of eight children of the couple Helen and Vincent McHale. The two divorced in the 1930s, and their father took custody of their children, moving with them to New York.

It is also known that when she graduated from high school, Evelyn joined the Women's Army Corps - a US Army women's department focused on administrative and bureaucratic services - and was transferred to work in Missouri. Some time later, the girl got a job as a clerk and returned to New York, where she met a college student named Barry Rhodes, whom she became engaged to.

The most beautiful suicide

On the eve of committing suicide, Evelyn went to visit Barry in Pennsylvania, and the boy later said that he noticed nothing unusual about the bride's behavior. Then, the day after the meeting, the young woman arrived in the Empire State Building in the morning, climbed to the 86th floor, removed her coat, and carefully placed it on the railing of the observation deck.

Empire state building

Observation Deck Where Evelyn Jumped (Vintage Everyday)

Then Evelyn wrote a note — which was left by her coat — climbed onto the railing and jumped. According to witnesses, there was a guard just 10 feet away from the girl, but unfortunately he could do nothing to prevent her from committing suicide.

In her note, Evelyn asked that no one - whether in her family or outside her - see any part of her, and that her body be cremated. She also requested that no ceremony be organized or a grave created in her memory. As she wrote, her fiancé Barry had asked them to marry in June, but she believed she would not be a good wife to anyone and that Barry would be better off without her. Evelyn finished the note by asking her father to be informed that she had many of her mother's tendencies.

Destroyed Limousine

Limousine Destroyed After Suicide (Codex 99 / Louisiana Daily World)

In keeping with the girl's wishes, she had no funeral, her body was cremated, and there is no grave marking her death. However, with regard to the request that no one see her, this, unfortunately, was not answered, since her image - which seems to lie more placidly asleep on the ceiling of the limo - became world famous. The photographer, however, never published another photo.

According to people at Codex 99, Evelyn was the 12th person to jump from the Empire State Building and the fifth to attempt suicide on the site within 3 weeks. After the girl's death, a 3-meter high rail was installed to prevent people from jumping off the observation platform, and guards were trained to learn to identify potential suicides. Barry, the fiancé, majored in engineering, moved to California, and never married. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 86.