Coroner Won’t Restudy Hoffman Suicide

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — The Bucks County coroner, ignoring calls from citizens groups, said Thursday that he has no intention of reopening the investigation into the suicide of political activist Abbie Hoffman.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights and the Prozac Survivors Support Group--both offshoots of the Church of Scientology--had asked the coroner to reopen the case after it was learned that Hoffman took the controversial anti-depressant Prozac six weeks before his death.

Dr. Thomas Rosko ruled that Hoffman committed suicide on April 12, 1989, by taking an overdose of the sedative phenobarbital and alcohol.

Hoffman, 52, had filled a prescription for Prozac before his death, but Rosko’s autopsy did not find any trace of the drug.

Hoffman, the anti-Vietnam War activist who founded the Youth International Party, known as the Yippies, used Prozac for two weeks in February, 1989, and then stopped, the groups said.

A Harvard study published in February found that 3.5% of Prozac users developed suicidal thoughts that lasted up to three months after taking the drug.