Sequel In Salonika

Who killed George Polk, and why? In the five months since the body of the CBS correspondent was found in Salonika Bay, thousands of Greek police and dozens of volunteer sleuths from the U.S. had tried to find out. They had plenty of theories, but only one substantial clue: the handwriting on the envelope in which Folk's identity card was returned to the police (TIME, July 5). This week, the clue paid off.

At a press conference in Salonika, timed to coincide with Secretary Marshall's visit to Greece (see INTERNATIONAL), Minister of Justice George Melas told 200 newsmen that the case was practically solved; three men and a woman had been charged with conspiracy.

Communist Reporter Gregory Staktopoulos and his mother, Anna, were in jail. Communist Leader Adam Mouzenides, named as the trigger man, and one Evangelos Vasvanas were at large. According to the official version, the killing was plotted by the Cominform, executed by the Greek Communist Party in the hope that it could be blamed on rightists and used to discredit the Greek government in the eyes of the world.

The case hung on the story told by slick-haired Reporter Staktopoulos, 36-year-old stringer for Reuters news agency. A graduate of Communist training schools, he had been ordered to renounce the party publicly two years ago, and pose as a reformed Red. On the night of May 8, under party orders, he said, he took Polk to a waterfront restaurant in Salonika, to wait for a dory that would start the correspondent on his journey to see Guerrilla Chieftain Markos Vafiades.

When they stepped into the boat, said Staktopoulos, Vasvanas was at the oars, Mouzenides in the stern, a stranger in the bow. They rowed out into the bay. Then, said the prisoner, "Mouzenides told me to tell Polk, 'for security's sake we'll have to blindfold you.' Polk replied: 'I've no objection; go ahead.' " Then Polk's hands & feet were bound. "We continued rowing out to sea. Suddenly, I heard a shot. I jumped up, saw Polk fall forward on his knees . . ." Staktopoulos did not know why he wasn't shot too. He was put ashore and told to get his mother to send Polk's identity card to police. Eventually, the handwriting led the cops to the mother and son.

The case was far from closed; U.S. newsmen who had been pressing for a solution reserved judgment, waited to see what would turn up at the Staktopoulos' trial. As for Fugitive Mouzenides, he might be a hard man to find. Markos' radio had announced last summer that he had "fallen in the struggle for the freedom of Greece."

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