Elvita Adams wasn’t the only person to jump from the Empire State Building at the time of the tragedy.
Over 30 people attempted suicide from the 102-story building on New York’s West 34th Street, all of whom succeeded. The first was in 1931 when a man who had lost his job leaped from the 58th floor of the building, which was still under construction at the time.
Then there was Evelyn McHale’s famed 1947 jump, in which her body landed on a vehicle.
After seeing these people plunge to their deaths from the top floors of the famed New York City skyscraper, Adams may have assumed that choosing the same structure with a roof height of 1,250 feet would have the same consequence. But then something unexpected happened.
On the evening of December 2, 1979, Adams, a 29-year-old Bronx native, arrived at the Manhattan skyscraper to put an end to it all.
She’d lost her job and was surviving on government assistance, which wasn’t enough to pay her rent and care for her 10-year-old kid. Faced with eviction and unsure of what to do, Adams decided to commit suicide by jumping from the 86th level of the building.
Adams jumped after climbing over the barrier that encircled the observation platform on the 86th floor. She anticipated dying if she fell to the street below, but she landed on a three-foot ledge on the 85th floor instead.
She had been saved by strong wind gusts. Adams’ body was blown back by the strong winds, placing her on a two-and-a-half-foot ledge on the 85th floor.
When a security guard heard her moaning, he approached the floor’s window and drew her in. She was then taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a shattered pelvis.
She was also subjected to a mental evaluation. Adams told the hospital staff that she had traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan to see the city lights.
“I wanted to reach out and touch them because they were so beautiful,” she said. The young woman claimed that all she recalled after the incident was the pain.
“I wasn’t afraid because I was in so much pain.”
“I can’t tell whether the wind pushed me back or pushed me off.”
According to The New York Times, four guards normally monitor the building’s 86th-floor observation deck, which is ringed by an eight-foot iron spiked fence.
According to the police, they did not see Adams jump and that the incident was an attempted suicide.
What happened to Adams after he was saved from the fall is unknown at this time.
New Book Which Defends Critical Race Theory And The Teaching Of America’s Racist History In Schools
Click On This Link Below To Get Paperback (Or Kindle) Version On Amazon ==>