JOHN LENNON'S "HAUNTING" LEGACY

Everyone knows a good ghost story. Everyone knows someone who claims to have seen something odd that might have been "supernatural", or whose brother or sister or third cousin twice removed has supposedly encountered a strange presence or experienced an inexplicable happening at some point in their life. We love these stories. Even if we don't believe them. But there are some that we find ourselves wanting to believe more than others, especially if they involve people who have passed away who we would like to think are still with us somehow...like John Lennon. Since the former Beatle's death in 1980, there have been numerous stories involving sightings of his alleged spirit. None other than Paul McCartney claimed that he and the three surviving Beatles felt John's presence constantly when they were in the studio recording harmonies for "Free As A Bird" back in 1995. Perhaps, because the song was written and originally recorded by John, it was only natural that the other three Beatles would be overcome with the sense that their erstwhile bandmate was there in the studio with them as they added their voices to the original song mix. But, according to Paul, it was more than that. "There were a lot of strange goings, on in the studio, noises that shouldn't have been there and equipment doing all manner of weird things," he said. "There was just an overall feeling that John was around."

Things got even weirder when Paul, George, and Ringo posed for publicity photos outside the studio. Just as the photographer snapped the first photograph, a white peacock wandered into the frame. Paul is convinced that the bird was actually John making his presence known. And later, during the mixing process, there was another even eerier sign that the most controversial Beatle was still among the group. According to Paul, he and the others decided to include some backward masking on the song "to give all those Beatles nuts something to do." But as they played the tape back, Paul said, they were shocked to hear the words "John Lennon" amid the gibberish.

But, of course, Paul McCartney isn't the only one who believes that he encountered the spirit of the late John Lennon. In 1983, three years after John was shot by Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota in New York City, a musican called Joey Harrow, who lived nearby, was walking past John's former residence when, he claims, he saw the murdered Beatle, surrounded by an eerie light, standing in the front doorway of the building. A female friend who was with Harrow that night also claimed to have seen the spirit, adding that she felt an urge to go up and speak to it, but was held back by the expression on its face. "Something about the way he looked at me said 'No'," she explained.

Of course, not all encounters with alleged spirits include actual sightings. Liam Gallagher, front man for the English band Oasis, is probably just as famous for fighting with his brother and bandmate, Noel as he is for co-writing hits like "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" in the 1990s. But along with his penchant for sparring with family members, Liam seems to have a bent toward the paranormal as well. According to the singer, he was staying at a friend's house in Manchester one night when he had a sudden, unexpected out of body experience whilst lying in bed. But there's even more to the story...Morning Glory. A long time admirer of John Lennon, Liam claims that, as he "fell back" into his body, he felt a presence and somehow knew insticntively that it was John Lennon.

Another, even more poignant account of a non-visual encounter with the ghostly presence of John Lennon comes from Julian Lennon, the musician's son by former wife Cynthia Lennon. It seems that Julian was in Australia some years ago watching an Aboriginal tribal ceremony when the tribe leader handed him a white feather. The otherwise innocuous gesture held huge significance for Julian since, according to him, his late father had once told him that if he ever died to "watch for a white feather." According to Julian, his father had explained that the feather would be a sign that he was there, watching over him.

And, last but by no means least, we have an account from May Pang, who worked as a secretary for John and Yoko in the 1970s before Yoko famously arranged for her to become John's mistress during a period of difficulty in the couple's marriage. May claims that she has often felt John's presence in the years since his death, especially whilst working on her book, Instamatic Karma, which was published in 2008. May says that she just has a way of sensing when "he is around", and that, although it is an eerie feeling, she has become used to it. However, on one occasion, it seems that her onetime lover made a personal appearance entirely for her benefit. It was a rainy night in New York, and as May was driving with friends across the Hudson Bridge, the conversation was of John, more specifically about May's belief that he was often with her in spirit. "But how do you know when he's around?" one of her passengers asked. Before May could answer, a large tour bus cut in front of her car, forcing her to slam on the brakes. As she was recovering her equilibrium and swearing under her breath, she looked up and saw the cartoon image of John's face on the back of the bus. Emblazoned next to the image were the words "John Lennon Educational Songwriting." Recounting the experience, May said that one of her passengers asked her how many buses there were with that logo printed on them. "Only one," she replied, with a grin, and then went on to explain that it was a bus that traveled all over the country. But for some reason, that night, it just happened to be in New York, at the exact moment someone had asked her that question as she drove across the Hudson Bridge. Just as though John had arranged the incident to prove the point she was trying to make. But it makes sense. After all, one of the things that John Lennon was best known for was the pleasure he took in shaking things up whenever he could.

That's it for now....from beyond the pale.

FRIDAY FOOD FREAK SHOW

HAIR-RAISING SANDWICH, ANYONE? READ THE FULL STORY HERE: http://www.coolpicturegallery.us/2010/09/most-disgusting-things-found-in-food.html

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

MEALS FROM BEYOND THE PALE

Man does not live by bread alone. That old axiom takes on an even more emphatic meaning when you're ordering your meals "beyond the pale." The following are some examples of just how bizarre the simple practice of eating dinner can be...

JELLIED TURKEY...WITH HARD-BOLED EGG ACCENTS. FROM A 1950S "GOOD HOUSEKEEPING" COOKBOOK.

SPAGHETTI INSERTED INTO...YUCK...BOILED HOT DOGS. FROM THE SAME COOKBOOK.

THE ULTIMATE CHEESEBURGER, MADE BY ONE OF MCDONALD'S VERY OWN CHEF. BUT...WHY?

SUSHI SERVED ON THE BODY OF A NAKED WOMAN. THE PRACTICE HAS JUST BEEN OUTLAWED IN CHINA. BUT YOU CAN STILL VISIT THE GREAT WALL...

HOT RAT SOUP...FROM http://www.worth1000.com/contests/28118/fire-the-chef-4

“INAGO NO TSUKUDANI"...OR, IN OTHER WORDS, JAPANESE GRASSHOPPERS...SERVED WITH A LOVELY, SWEETENED SOY SAUCE SIMMERED WITH MIRIN.

AND WHAT DO YOU WASH IT ALL DOWN WITH? HOW ABOUT A NICE GLASS OF SNAKE WINE...FROM VIET NAM?

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

PARANORMAL PODCAST

http://jimharold.com/the-paranormal-podcast/ouija-gone-wild-with-rosemary-ellen-guiley-paranormal-podcast-245/

JIMMY PAGE, MY SATANIC LOVE

Back in the early 70s, I fell in love with Jimmy Page. He never knew about my feelings, of course, or about the poster that I had tacked onto my bedroom wall next to the one of David Cassidy, for whom my ardor had already begun to wane, which made me feel guilty, even though he never knew about my feelings, either. By 1977, both posters would be replaced by one of The Sex Pistols as I shifted my allegience from mainstream rock and roll to punk. But in 1973, or thereabouts, I was totally and completely in love with the guitar god Jimmy Page, founder of Led Zepplin, and the physical embodiment of just about everything I like in a man...tall, dark, brooding, mysterious, English, and gifted with perfect timing. Some of my friends, the ones who still favored more pop-centric artists like David Cassidy, took issue with my affection for Mr. Page, citing the fact that he was (gasp!) "a satanist." For a young girl brought up in the Pentecostal church, the news should have set off alarm bells. I mean, I wasn't even allowed to go to movies or watch TV on Sundays. How could I possibly justify being in love with a devil worshiper, no matter how cute he was, or how well he played guitar? So, I didn't try. I just admired his image on my poster and made a point of not mentioning his name to my friends when the subject of "celebrity crushes" came up. It wasn't until long after I had become immersed in the world of music as an artist in my own right that I bothered to check out the real facts behind the "satanist" label attached to Jimmy Page. And guess what? I still have no idea. Here's a quick tutorial.

A PENSIVE JIMMY PAGE, CIRCA 1980s

During Led Zepplin's heyday, Jimmy Page made no secret of the fact that he was interested in the teachings of Aleister Crowley (also known as "The Great Beast 666"), founder of the Thelemite religion and the man who coined the pithy phrase,"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law", a paraphrase of an older pagan pro which states "And do harm ye none, do what thou wilt." Crowley was, among other things, a disciple of "Black Magick", as well as a self-proclaimed pansexual and an advocate of recreational drug use. Born into a wealthy English family in 1875, Crowley's fame as an occultist and his criticism of the social and religious values of his time earned him the nickname "The Wickedest Man In The World."

ALEISTER CROWLEY, "THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD", IN CEREMONIAL GARB

Not surprisingly, Jimmy Page's fascination with Crowley's teachings was linked to the music he made with Led Zepplin. "Stairway To Heaven", which has been voted the most popular song in the history of rock and roll, is supposedly fraught with cryptic references to Crowley's teachings, as is "The Battle of Evermore", not to mention a host of other songs written by Page and Robert Plant. But is it true? In an interview conducted in the 1980s, John Paul Jones, bassist for Led Zepplin, was asked about the band's association with "satanism." He replied, "I found out that (Jimmy Page) had an interest in Crowley quite early on. I didn't have the interest in it, so I left it to him. I knew he'd bought Crowley's house. He didn't talk about it much. It was a private thing. I never went there." Despite Jones' disclaimer, the accusations remain to this day. Among other things, Page's interest in Black Magick has been blamed for the death of Plant's son, Karac in 1977. Karac Plant died suddenly of an acute stomach infection whilst Led Zepplin was in the midst of their North American tour that year, cutting the tour short as Plant rushed home to England to console his wife and family. At the time, there was a rumor that Page had been indulging in secret "Black Magick" rituals, and that Karak's death was somehow the result of an unspecified deal the guitarist had made with Satan. Hard to swallow? I think so, too. On a less tragic note, Page's proclivity for the use of whips during lovemaking sessions has also been attributed to his devotion to the teachings of Crowley, who was, apparently, something of an animal in the bedroom.

JIMMY PAGE OUTSIDE BOLESKINE HOUSE, FORMER RESIDENCE OF ALIESTER CROWLEY

But does any of this truly mean that Page was a satanist? Perhaps we should ask Pamela Des Barre, who carried on a long-term affair with Page back in the 70s and which she wrote about in her 1987 memoir, "I'm With The Band: Confessions Of a Groupie". According to Des Barre, "First of all, Crowley's vibe isn't 'black.' He was a seeker of things beyond our five senses and so was Jimmy. He was fascinated with the search into all things occult and hidden, but not necessarily dark or evil in any way. Crowley was actually attempting to bring understanding to what people deemed 'dark.' Jimmy liked living very close to the danger zone, curious about secrets that most of us haven't even heard about. I knew an old gentleman bookseller on Hollywood Boulevard, also entranced with Crowley, and I found a handwritten manuscript of Crowley's tucked away on a high shelf. I remember getting that huge sum of money and being honoured to be sending Jimmy something so important to him. I imagined him reading that thing deep into the night, roaming around in Crowley's castle in Scotland, flapping around in his cape."

PAMELA DES BARRE: GROUPIE TO THE STARS AND DEFENDER OF JIMMY PAGE

Des Barre, who makes no secret of her continuing affection for rock and roll's dark god goes on to say that "Before we met, I was afraid of Jimmy and determined not to fall for his charms when Led Zeppelin hit LA. Deserved or not, their reputation as debauched naughty boys preceded them. But he was intent on getting me to fall for him, and it didn't take much. He sent me notes, got hold of my phone number and easily convinced me he would be worth the trouble. He did keep whips coiled up in his suitcase on the road, but never attempted to use them on me. He definitely had a wicked sexual side, which made him a transcendent lover. Even when you were intimately involved with him, he held back, which made you want to delve into him even deeper."

Hmmmm. Sounds pretty standard rock and roll to me. In fact, if you want my opinion, Jimmy Page was probably no more a satanist than...say...Ozzy Osbourne, who has also been accused of dallying with the dark side. And as anyone who ever watched "The Osbournes" reality show can tell you, the man whose fame derives in part from the alleged fact that he once bit the head off a live bat would be probably be lucky if he could drive his own car to the grocery store, much less summon the focus and energy necessary to perform the required rituals to call upon the powers of Satan.

JIMMY PAGE: OLDER AND WISER..AND PROBABLY NOT A SATANIST

So, "do what thou wilt"...that is, think of Jimmy Page as a satanist if you so choose, and Led Zepplin as a rock and roll conduit for the teachings of a man whose "satanic" philosophy focused with undue heaviness on the right of his followers to indulge in wholesale sex whenever the craving hit. But I'd rather just think of him as one of the greatest guitarists to ever pick up an axe, and, despite his rapidly aging physique, as one of the most gorgeous men to ever walk on stage and strum a "C" chord. And if I'm wrong...well, it doesn't really change anything. I mean, hell, there was a time when I though that true love was something that really existed. I've learned a lot since that time. But that doesn't mean I don't still put clean sheets on my bed on the days that my lover comes to visit me. Catch my drift?

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

In The Shadows – Campfire 115

In The Shadows – Campfire 115

WEIRD...BUT NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE DEAD

"Beyond The Pale has a death theme going, doesn't it?" That was what a friend said to me shortly after reading my last post. And on close examination of what I've written here so far, I have to agree with that friend's assessment. It's not that I'm in love with the idea of writing about death, it's just that death, and especially suicides, happen to be such a great source of material. Weird, fascinating, poignant, and otherwise. Still, I don't want to this blog to become known only for its posts about death. So, to offset things...here's something completely different...three bizarre facts about celebrities that have nothing to do with death...well, two of them don't anyway. So, then, from the less shadowy section beyond the pale...

MAYBE "THE BIRDS" ATE IT

For years, it has been rumored that Alfred Hitchcock, the director of "The Birds", "Vertigo," and a host of other classic and highly-regarded horror films, had no belly button. Is this even possible? Apparently, it is. While, like all warm-blooded creatures (i.e. mammals), Hitchcock was born with a bellybutton, following a series of operations in his stomach area, doctors stitched it up. According to actress Karen Black, who worked with Hitchcock in Family Plot, his final film, she was visiting the famed director at his cabin one day when "he lifted up his little, white shirt, and sure enough, they had sewn it over, horizontally." Black doesn't mention what she said in response to the impromptu peep show. But if showing an attractive young actress his lack of a navel was Hitchcock's version of a pick up line...well...Psycho suddenly makes a hell of a lot more sense.

MARK HIS WORDS

American author and humorist Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835) was known for his biting wit and forward thinking, but was he a psychic as well? It seems possible. On the night that he was born, Haley's Comet was visible in the sky. As an adult, Twain predicted that he would die when the comet returned to the night sky. On April 21, 1910, 75 years after Twain's birth, one night after the orbit of Haley's Comet had brought it closest to earth, the great writer died. Many years earlier, after encouraging his younger brother, Henry to sign on as a steamboat pilot (a job which Twain had held as well), Twain dreamed that his brother had been killed in an explosion on board a steamboat. Several weeks later, his dream came true when Henry was killed in a boiler explosion on board the boat on which he was employed. With premonitions like those, it is no wonder that Twain was a close friend of renegade scientist Nikola Tesla. It's just too bad that he couldn't have stuck around for the Philidelphia Experiment in the late 1940s. Maybe, then, we'd know what really happened.

WHAT A (SMOKY) WORLD!

Margaret Hamilton, the former kindergarten teacher who played The Wicked Witch of The West in 1939's The Wizard of Oz, cut a formidable figure both as a witch and as Miss Alvira Gulch, the less fantastical role she played in the first part of the film. But after recieving second and third degree burns during the filming of the scene in which she first meets Dorothy and then disappears in a cloud of smoke, she became a little...well...smoke shy. On returning to the film set following six weeks of recovery, she was informed that she would be shooting a scene in which she would be riding a broom spewing smoke. Hamilton flatly refused to do the scene, and her stand-in, Betty Danko was recruited instead...and was seriously injured during the shot. Considering her bad luck with special effects, it's no wonder Hamilton turned down the role of the grandmother in the 1960s Addams Family TV series. There was a lot of smoke billowing up out of that cauldron the old lady was always stirring.

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

THE WEIRD (ER) SIDE OF HOLLYWOOD

My post on The Weird (er) Side of Rock And Roll was so much fun to write, and, apparently so welcome and informative (at least to one reader) that I've spent the one free hour I managed to wrest out of this sweltering Tuesday in writing another one. Except, this time, the setting for weirdness is Hollywood. You know...that place in California with the big sign, even bigger egos, and (more often than not) small brains. But despite all its faults, I find Hollywood and its denizens infinitely fascinating...and so incredibly weird. Just take a look see.

PEG ENTWHISTLE: AN ACTRESS WHO FOUND FAME THE HARD WAY

Peg Entwhisle was born Millicent Lilian Entwhistle in Port Talbot, Wales on February 5, 1908. Twenty-four years later, on the morning of September 18, 1932, her lifeless body was found lying in a ravine 100 feet below the famous Hollywood sign (which, at that time, actually said "Hollywoodland"). How'd it happen? Well, it seems that, at some point before 1913, Peg and her father immigrated to the United States, where Peg embarked on an acting career, securing roles in several Broadway productions before making the move to Hollywood in 1932, where she was cast in a small, supporting roles in several forgotten films before finally scoring a small, supporting role in a high-budget thriller called Thirteen Women, which starred Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne. It was the Welsh actress's first credited screen role. However, a month before the movie opened in theaters, Peg apparently climbed to the top of the Hollywood (land) sign and leapt to her death. Her body was found by an anonoymous hiker who called the police and informed them of the discovery and told them that she had left the dead woman's coat, shoes, and purse on the front steps of the police station. Officers dispatched to the scene found Peg's body, although it was several days before she was identified by her uncle, who had last seen Peg when she told him that she was going for a walk and would be back soon. The coroner's report stated that she had died of multiple fractures of the pelvis. Police surmised that she had used a workman's ladder to climb to the top of the "H" on the sign and then had jumped. Why? All we have is the note she left in her purse, which was published in newspapers the next day. It said: "I am afraid, I am a coward. Sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain." A granite marker engraved with Peg Entwhistle's name was installed near the sign on September 16, 2010.

LUPE VELEZ: "THE MEXICAN SPITFIRE" WHOSE CAREER WENT DOWN THE TOILET

Lupe Velez, known as "The Mexican Spitfire" to her fans, starred in some 50 movies during a career that spanned the years between 1927 and 1944. She was once married to Johnny Weissmuller (star of the original Tarzan movies) and had a high-profile affair with Gary Cooper. But in 1944, at the age of 36, Lupe's charmed run came to an end when she became pregnant by an unknown lover who, apparently, turned heel and walked away when she broke the news. Despondent, Lupe decided to end it all, took a huge dose of Seconal, wrote a suicide note (in which she mentioned that she had taken a huge dose of Seconal) and lay down on her bed to await death. But, instead of killing her, the pills she had ingested made her nauseous, and she jumped out of bed and made a mad dash for the bathroom. Unfortuntaely, in her rush to reach the toilet, she slipped on a bathroom tile and fell headfirst into the toilet bowl where, presumably unconscious, she drowned. The maid found her there the next day, still with her head in the toilet, dead, as she had desired, but not quite in the way that she had intended.

MARIE PROVOST: A CAREER THAT WENT TO THE DOGS....HERS.

Marie Provost, born Mary Bickford Dunn on November 8, 1998, in Sarnia, Ontario, got her start in silent films as one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties in a string of silent comedies before making the shift into more dramatic roles in movies like The Beautiful And Damned and The Marriage Circle. Her work as a silent film actress brought her a measure of fame and generally good reviews, but when "talkies" replaced silent films, things took a downward turn for Marie. Although born in Canada, she had been raised in New York, and her thick Bronx accent relegated her to a string of minor roles in which she usually played a wise-cracking secretary or a tough broad who was the best friend of the featured ingenue. Depressed over her floundering career, as well as her dwindling fortune (she had to sell her home in Malibu and move into a seedy apartment in town) she made a pact with Jack Gilbert, another silent film star who had come on hard times since the advent of the "talkies." The pact? A drink to the death contest. Gilbert won, dying of alcoholism in 1936. But Gilbert's death didn't stop Marie from drinking, and she died of the same cause a year later. Unfortunately, one of the things that Marie had managed to hold onto during her downward spiral were her beloved dauchsunds. When her body was discovered inside her apartment, it was in a state that police described as "half-eaten"...by the hungry dogs.

GWILLI ANDRE: SHE FOUND A WHOLE NEW USE FOR NEWSPAPERS

Danish actress Gwilli Andre, who was known for her elegant blonde looks when she first sauntered into Hollywood in the early 1930s, had all the makings of a major film star. Not only was she beautiful, she was talented, and critics loved her. But her films failed to win the hearts of audiences, and by the 1940s, she found herself playing minor roles in minor films, the last one of which was The Falcon's Brother in 1942. Never heard of it? Neither has anyone else. Her increasing anonymity was a source of great pain for the would-be Scandinavian star, and so, like countless other has-beens before her, she sought solace in alcohol. On February 5, 1959, firefighters responded to the report of a fire at her house in Venice, California. They found Andre sprawled on the floor of her bedroom, surrounded by the burnt remnants of old publicity clippings which she had used as the impromptu funeral pyre which had been responsible for the fire.

ALBERT DEKKER: CLASSIC FILM STAR WHO MET A NOT-SO-CLASSY END

Albert Dekker was one of those classic film stars who seemed born to play roles in movies like Gentleman's Agreement and Beau Geste. Tall, dapper, blessed with a golden voice, as well as reams of talent, he was usually cast as "the heavy", a role that he claimed to enjoy playing much more than that of "the good guy." "Who wants to be America's sweetheart?" he once asked during an interview. However, in his private life, he was, by all accounts, a very good guy, who had a wife and a family, and spent considerable time in support of a variety of liberal causes. In fact, Dekker, a graduate of Bowdoin College, was so liberal that when Sen. Joe McCarthy began his witchhunt for communists in Hollywood, Dekker spoke out vehemently against McCarthy and his self-righteous campaign, calling the senator "insane". While his passionate stand against McCarthyism won him admiration from those who had been targeted by the senator, it shot a silver bullet into his career. Dekker found himself blacklisted and did not work as an actor again for the next 19 years. By the late 1960s, things had begun to get better for the 63-year-old former film star. He had just completed a role in The Wild Bunch and had been offered a role in Fiddler On The Roof. On an upward trajectory at last, Dekker and his fiancee (he and his first wife were divorced in the 50s) were in the process of purchasing a new house in Encino.

No doubt it came as quite a shock to his fans when, on the evening of Saturday, May 4, 1968, Dekker's nude body was found kneeling in a bathtub, a noose around his neck, hypodermic needles sticking out of each arm, and a rubber ball in his mouth which was fastened behind his head with chains. Several leather thongs were also wrapped around his body, the end of one clutched in his hand, and a scarf tied around his eyes. His wrists were handcuffed. On his buttocks, above two hypodermic needle punctures was written, in red lipstick, the word "whip" beside the drawing of a sun. But it didn't stop there. Sun rays had been drawn in lipstick around each of his nipples, the words "slave" and "cocksucker" written on his chest, and his thorax bore the pithy phrase "make me suck". On his lower abdomen was a crude drawing of a vagina. The coroner estimated that Dekker had probably been dead since Friday. Police said that they found no signs of forced entry into the apartment (which Dekker had been renting temporarily from a friend), although some expensive recording equipement was missing, as well as a substantial sum of money that his fiancee claimed had been on the premises. Police theorized that Dekker was a "closet homosexual" who had gotten mixed up with the wrong person, but further investigation failed to turn up any evidence of a secret life, nor did any of Dekker's friends consider him a man with "kinky" inclinations. With nothing else to go on, authorities closed the investigation, ruling Albert Dekker's death an "accidental suicide."

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

"THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUICIDE": SAD DEATH BEYOND THE PALE

EVELYN MCHALE: "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUICIDE", PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROBERT WILES, AS IT APPEARED IN LOOK MAGAZINE

On May 1, 1947, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale bought a ticket to the observation deck atop the Empire State Building, made the long trek upstairs, took off her coat, and leapt 86 stories through the morning mist to her death. In her determination to clear the building's setbacks, McHale landed on the roof of a United Nations limousine parked at the curb, crushing it, and causing an explosive crash that drew the attention of a young photography student called Robert Wiles who was walking across the street. As a crowd converged around the scene, Wiles posed his camera and took a photograph of McHale, who, despite the damage the impact of her falling body had done to the roof of the limousine, looked incongrously peaceful as she lay amid the rubble. The photograph, which came to be known as "The Most Beautiful Suicide", was subsequently featured in the May 12th issue of Look magazine and, decades later, was revamped by Andy Warhol for a print he called "Suicide (Fallen Body)" which he included with other prints that comprised his Death And Disaster series.

SUICIDE (FALLEN BODY) PRINT BY ANDY WARHOL, FROM HIS DEATH AND DISASTER SERIES (1962-1967)

As McHale made her tragic leap, her white scarf floated down to the street, catching the eye of patrolman John Morrissey, who was directing traffic on Thirty-third Street and Fifth Avenue. Stunned pedestrians who gathered around the crash site noticed a string of pearls clutched between McHale's fingers. But it was the note she left behind that struck the most poignant note of all. Discovered on the observation deck along with her coat and a brown make-up bag filled with family photographs, it read: “I don’t want anyone in--or out--of my family to see any part of me. 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.”

EVELYN McHALE...SMILING FOR THE CAMERA

From the moment Wiles' photograph appeared in Look magazine, Evelyn McHale became an object of fascination in pop culture. Yet, despite the high-profile circumstances of her death, we still know very little about her. What we do know is that she was born on Sept. 20, 1923 in Berkeley, California, the sixth child of Vincent and Helen McHale (she was one of seven), and that after moving to Washington DC where Vincent worked as a Federal Bank Land Examiner, the McHales divorced. Following the divorce, Vincent took custody of the children and relocated to Tuckahoe, New York, where Evelyn attended high school. After graduation, she joined the Women's Army Corps and was stationed in Jacksonville, Missouri. One of the few anecdotes we have from Evelyn's personal life is that, after her discharge from the army, she allegedly burned her uniform.

With her army career behind her, Evelyn settled in Baldwin, New York, living with her brother and sister-in-law, and taking a position as receptionist for an engraving company. It was at this point that she met Barry Rhodes, an ex-GI studying at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Shortly after meeting, the couple began making plans to marry at Rhodes' house in Troy, New York. The wedding date was set for June, 1947. The day before she died, Evelyn traveled by train to Easton to celebrate her fiance's 24th birthday. According to Rhodes, as the couple kissed good-bye the next morning, "(Evelyn) was as happy and normal as any girl about to be married."

So, what happened between that farewell kiss and the moment when Evelyn McHale made the decision to end her life? We'll never know, of course. That's one of the reasons that McHale's story remains such a source of fascination. That...and the eerily composed look on her face as she lay atop the crumpled roof of that limousine 86 stories below the Empire State Building observation deck. Her last words, scrawled in the note that she left behind, indicate that she was troubled, but without any accompanying details, we can only guess as to the nature of those troubles. There is something undeniably chilling about the final request included in her suicide note: "I beg of you--my family--don't have any service for me or any rememberance for me." The thought that a beautiful young woman, who seemed to have everything to live for, wished, in her final moments, to be forgotten in death may be incomprehensible to those of us who know nothing about McHale's personal suffering, but it speaks volumes about the self-loathing that must have shadowed her life until that moment. And it is, of course, painfully ironic, that, in choosing to end her life in the manner she did, Evelyn McHale achieved the exact opposite of what she had wished for.

That's it for now...from beyond the pale.

THE SPLENDOR OF IT ALL: NATALIE WOOD'S DEATH STILL A MYSTERY

NATALIE WOOD: A GLITTERING CAREER OVERSHADOWED BY DARKNESS ABOARD "THE SPLENDOR"

Thirty years ago, on the night of November 29, 1981, the body of actress Natalie Wood was found floating in the dark water beside a yacht called "The Splendor" off South Catalina Island following a night of intense partying among Wood, her husband, Robert Wagner, and Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with Wood in a film called "Brainstorm." The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled Wood's death an "accident", but eight months ago, amid reports of becoming "privy to new information", officials changed the cause of death to "Undetermined" and reopened investigation into the case. Although they have remained generally tight-lipped about the details of that "new information", a spokesman for the department mentioned that bruises were found on Wood's body that night, underneath the jacket that the star of "West Side Story" and "Splendor In The Grass" was wearing over her nightgown at the time of her death. Wood's sister Lana had previously tried, unsuccessfully, to get the case reopened.

ROBERT WAGNER: DOES HE KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT NATALIE HE HASN'T BEEN TELLING?

Among the odd facts surrounding Wood's death were the testimony of a woman on a nearby yacht who claimed that she heard a woman scream for help around midnight on the night that Wood died, reports that Walken and Wagner were engaged in a loud argument around the same time, and Wood's well-known fear of water, which puts a decided damper on the theory that she drowned accidentally whilst trying to stop a dinghy from banging against the side of the yacht and interrupting her sleep. The captain of the yacht, Dennis Davern, has stated publicly that he believes Wagner was responsible for the 43-year-old actress's death, saying that, on realizing that Woods was missing, "We didn't take any steps to find her." He added, "I did lie on a report several years ago."

DENNIS DAVERN: CAPTAIN OF "THE SPLENDOR" AND (APPARENTLY) RESTLESS SOUL ON A MISSION

So far, law officials haven't come up with anything that they believe will "shed new light on the case." But the investigation remains open...as does the mystery that continues to surround the untimely death of one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses.

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