Marek Władysław Papała (September 4, 1959 – June 25, 1998) was a Polish police officer and Chief of Police from January 3, 1997, to January 29, 1998, who died as a result of a gunshot head wound from a silenced TT pistol on June 25, 1998.[1] Officially, Papała died at the hands of a car thief turned state witness Igor L. Due to numerous inaccuracies the investigation was criticized by many former police officers and journalists.[2] [3]
The Papała contract killing is widely regarded as the most serious unsolved crime involving former communist security services SB, high-ranking members of the government, and the mafia, since Poland's transition to democracy in 1989.