The Spetsopoula Incident

Greek Shipowner Stavros Niarchos and his wife Eugenie were having late dinner in their home on the heavily wooded islet of Spetsopoula, which sits in the Aegean, 56 helicopter miles from Athens. During dinner, Niarchos placed a telephone call to Charlotte Ford in Paris. He was wed briefly to Charlotte in 1965 before returning to Eugenie, his wife of 22 years who had borne him four children. Niarchos wanted Charlotte to send their four-year-old daughter, Elena, to Spetsopoula for a visit, as she had done the year before. After some discussion, Charlotte agreed, and there is some speculation that she may have offered to bring the child herself.

Within an hour, a maid found Eugenie, deep in a coma, sprawled on her bedroom floor. An empty Seconal bottle lay near by. It was 11 p.m. on May 3. Niarchos called his sister in Athens and asked her to send a doctor employed by the Niarchos shipyards. When the doctor arrived from Athens by helicopter, it was 2 a.m. Half an hour later, Eugenie, 44, died. The doctor refused to sign a death certificate because death was not from natural causes. The police, who noted bruises on Eugenie's throat and abdomen, ordered an inquiry.

Ugly Rumors. Niarchos was told not to leave the country, and Eugenie's body was taken to Athens for an autopsy. Officials said nothing, and the Greek press was forbidden to discuss the investigation. But the Niarchos family leaked the medical examiner's report that Eugenie, who had taken 25 Seconal tablets, had died from an overdose of barbiturates. The report also supported Niarchos' contention that the bruises on her body were caused by his efforts to revive her.

While ugly rumors still circulated in Athens tavernas, Niarchos went about his business. Earlier this summer he asked a special board of magistrates for permission to go abroad on business. After posting bond, he flew off for five days to London. As if nothing had happened, the Greek junta went ahead and ratified a $200 million deal by which Niarchos will expand his Greek shipyards and build a new state oil refinery in return for oil-import concessions. A member of the medical team involved in the case confided that he was "almost sure there will be a happy ending."

Bodily Injuries. Last week, however, that ending seemed somewhat in question. After a lengthy investigation, Piraeus Public Prosecutor Constantine Fafoutis formally recommended that Niarchos be charged with causing bodily injuries leading to his wife's death. The prosecutor suggested that Niarchos be tried under Article 311 of the Greek penal code, which corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon concept of involuntary homicide. Under Greek legal procedure, the prosecutor's recommendation now goes to a "penal council" composed of three magistrates, who must decide whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant bringing Niarchos to trial. If convicted under Article 311, Niarchos would face a maximum penalty of 18 years in prison.

When the prosecutor's recommendation was announced last week, Niarchos was aboard his black-hulled schooner Creole off the Cote d'Azur. Once again, Niarchos protested that Eugenie's death had been a simple suicide. "There is, alas, only a single sad truth," he told reporters. "All witnesses agree." Niarchos can only hope that the magistrates agree too.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.