NOAH LOTTICK Driven to Suicide by the Church of Scientology

Noah Lottick was an American student of Russian studies who committed suicide on May 11, 1990 by jumping from a 10th-floor hotel window, clutching his only remaining money in his hands. After his death, a controversy arose revolving around his parents' concern over his membership in the Church of Scientology. Noah Lottick had taken Scientology courses, and paid $5,000 for these services. After taking these courses, Lottick's friends and family remarked that he began to act strangely. They stated to Time magazine that he told them that his Scientologist teachers were telepathic, and that his father's heart attack was purely psychosomatic. Five days before Lottick's death, his parents say he visited their home claiming they were spreading "false rumors" about him. Lottick's suicide was profiled in the Time cover story that was highly critical of Scientology, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," which received the Gerald Loeb Award, and later in Reader's Digest. Lottick's father, Dr Edward Lottick, stated that Scientology is a "school for psychopaths" and he blamed the church for his son's death. The Church of Scientology also haggled with him over $3,000 that Noah had paid to the Church and not utilized for services; they claimed Lottick had intended for this to be a donation. Dr Lottick later added that Scientology therapies were manipulations and that no Scientology staff members attended Noah's funeral.