The murder of Polk, the infamous “Polk case,” has remained one of the darkest post-war crimes for sixty-eight years. The official view, validated by a court decision, was not only challenged but proven to be flawed. A “decision” of political expediency. The interpretations of the reasons behind the murder and the assumptions about the perpetrators, made by various sides, consist of more or less convincing and “logical” reasoning.

In February 1977, Yiannis Maris, triggered by Grigoris Staktopoulos's request for a retrial, published a comprehensive investigation in installments in Akropolis about the “Polk case,” an investigation he had started in 1948 and just completed. This investigation provided another “perspective” on the mystery of George Polk's murder. It delved deeper into the mystery that had shocked Greece at the time and caused an uproar in Europe and America. He found new evidence and, with his ability to probe complex mysteries, shed some light on what then seemed incomprehensible.

The leading writer of detective novels could wonderfully have turned this entire story into a novel filled with crime and espionage mystery. He never did. It was perhaps the only time that Maris did not construct a mystery story but lived it himself.

GEORGIOS LEONTARITIS participated as an assistant in Maris's investigation in 1977. He conducted original interviews and testimonies that are recorded in this book. Staktopoulos broke his silence and spoke to him about his tragedy. K. Chatzihargyris, a journalist and assistant to Polk, told him much. And later, Markos Vafiadis, the leader of the Democratic Army of Greece, whom in 1948 all foreign correspondents from major newspapers sought to approach in Grammos, spoke to him openly, without any reservations.

EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK

The place where the crime was committed holds particular significance. Thessaloniki at that time was the city that “connected” the rest of Greece with the communist-held northern region, with Grammos and Vitsi. It had become the center of attention for British and American agents, among others. It resembled Casablanca or a small Berlin. American journalist Winston Burdett aptly remarked in August 1948 that: “Whether the communists killed Polk or the far-right, choosing the port of Thessaloniki, each side left the crime at the 'gate' of the other!”

From the Greek side, the Gendarmerie, led by Xanthopoulos, and the General Security with Mouchountis had control over right-wing paramilitary organizations. In short, Thessaloniki at that time was a dangerous area... All “sides” – communists, British, right-wingers, but also Americans – knew of Polk's intentions to reach Markos's headquarters. All had the capacity to exploit these intentions of his to kill him. And all could have reasons to dispose of him through a crime. The question that remains unanswered is which of them committed this crime?

At the order of Ilias Tsirimokos, Yiannis Maris (a leading figure in the socialist Machi) went to Thessaloniki in 1948 to attend Staktopoulos's trial, investigate the Polk case, and write about it for the newspaper. In Thessaloniki, Maris found himself in a climate of terror that is impossible to imagine in today’s era. He had no trouble perceiving that the agents of the powerful Security Commander, Major Mouchountis, had “their eyes on him.” He was the only journalist from a leftist newspaper, and his movements in the city, along with the contacts he had with people who “knew something,” disturbed the police authorities.

In this book, Georgios Leontaritiss conveys first what Maris wrote back then in Machi. His observations, following his methodical research, about what happened in May 1948 stand out.

COVER IMAGE: NIKOS NOMIKOS, Polk with his later wife Rhea Kokoni, a flight attendant at TAE, on the flight to Athens in January 1947. A plan for an investigation by Apogeumatini in 1953.