Evelyn McHale was born in Berkeley, California, one of nine children born to Helen and Vincent McHale. Her father was a bank examiner who relocated to Washington, D.C., in … 展开

After graduating from Normandy High School in 1942, McHale joined the Women's Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson City, Missouri. She later moved to Baldwin, New York, … 展开

On April 30, 1947, McHale took a train from New York to Easton, Pennsylvania, to visit Rhodes. The next day, after leaving Rhodes's residence, she returned to New York City and went to the Empire State Building where she jumped from the 86th-floor observatory, … 展开

The photo of her body, taken by Robert Wiles, was published in Life magazine. It has been compared to the photograph by Malcolm Browne of the self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, who burned himself alive at a busy Saigon road intersection … 展开

Andy Warhol used Wiles' photo in one of his prints entitled Suicide (Fallen Body).
Her picture was also used on the cover of Saccharine Trust's album Surviving You, Always, released in 1984 by SST Records.
Lethal Weapon references this picture in the opening sequence. 展开

• The Falling Man
• Thích Quảng Đức 展开