Mayday- that's May 1st- is a strange date. It was on that day that Hitler's suicide was announced to the world, the day Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq from an aircraft carrier, and of course, last week the death of Osama Bin Laden.
But in 1947, it was the day a beautiful woman named Evelyn McHale chose to dramatically end her life. From Life magazine:
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.
Conventional wisdom tells us that the human form would explode under such circumstance. That car is demolished, and cars back then were made of very firm, unforgiving metal. If not for the way she apparently busted through her stockings, it would seem that she had climbed into the steel carnage left by a wrecking ball, and went to sleep. Just a cat nap.
All because she didn't think anyone could love her. When you see this, how could you not? Your heart aches a bit for Evelyn McHale.
