Five years later, in 1938, he completed his undergraduate degree in English at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and had begun writing for the Fort Worth Press.

[7] On Sunday May 16, 1948, Polk was found dead near the Port of Thessaloniki, shot at point-blank range in the back of the head, with his hands and feet tied.

In Polk's articles, he alleged that several officials in the Greek government embezzled $250,000 in foreign aid ($2.5 million in 2016 dollars) from the Truman administration, a charge that was never proved.

In the late 1970s, details on how American Mission for Aid to Greece authorities helped the Greek Police frame two young communists for his murder.

The communist guerilla radio station said that Adam Mouzenidis was already dead, having been killed during aerial bombing by the Hellenic Air Force, when Polk was murdered.

Kellis worked on contract for the Wall Street law firm of William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the former head of OSS, who was hired by journalist Walter Lippman to investigate the case.

Within months of his death, a group of American journalists created the George Polk Awards for outstanding radio or television journalism.

Frank examined the claim, repeated by Edward R. Murrow, that Polk had commanded a unit of 119 marines on Guadalcanal, flew a fighter plane that shot down 11 Japanese aircraft and was awarded a Purple Heart.

Frank said that "the inescapable conclusion is that George Polk did not simply verbally recount false tales of his wartime exploits to his family and to his journalist colleagues, he actually forged documents to buttress his stories.

[11] On October 5, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that it would honor five journalists of the 20th century with first-class rate postage stamps, to be issued on Tuesday, April 22, 2008: Martha Gellhorn, John Hersey, George Polk, Rubén Salazar, and Eric Sevareid.