Empire State Building Suicide

On March 30, 2010, 21-year-old Cameron Dabaghi fell to his death from the Empire State Building during rush hour in New York City. It is believed he intended to commit suicide. The man allegedly took a running leap off of the observation deck, clearing a fence as well as the building's outer ledge. His success at jumping from such an open area was explained by the foul New York weather, which kept the observation area relatively empty.http://gothamist.com/2010/03/30/man_jumps_off_empire_state_building.php

Dabaghi was already dead when rescue workers arrived at the scene at approximately 6:30 pm. Most recently, a man had jumped to his death from a vacant office on the 66th floor of the building in 2006.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/empire-state-building-suicide-jump_n_519490.html

It's estimated that 1 out of every 10 people who commit suicide in New York City have come to the city explicitly for that purpose.http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/11/01/2007-11-01_some_tourists_choose_city_landmarks_for_-1.html The practice of visiting famous cities or landmarks in order to kill oneself is known as "suicide tourism." Along with the Empire State Building, Times Square and the George Washington Bridge are landmarks in New York that attract out-of-towners who want to die memorably.

America's most popular landmark for suicides remains the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The California Highway Patrol stopped officially counting the number of people jumping off of the bridge at 997 to avoid commemorating the "1,000th death." The bridge is the number one suicide magnet in the world, and an average of 19 people jump off in suicide attempts each year.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/30/MNG2NFF7KI1.DTL The 2006 documentary The Bridge explores the phenomenon using actual surveillance footage of suicidal people jumping to their deaths.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799954/

Photographer Robert Wiles took an iconic photo of Evelyn McHale moments after she committed suicide by jumping from the Empire State Building on May 1, 1947. McHale landed on the roof of a United Nations limousine which had been parked on the curb, indenting it. The photo, which later ran in Life Magazine is notable for the look of peace and serenity on McHale's face, and the relatively untouched preservation of her body despite the 86-story tumble. McHale had recently left her fiance and, in her suicide note, expressed her belief that she would not make anyone a good wife.http://kottke.org/08/07/the-most-beautiful-suicide