Universal covers and 3-manifolds

In this paper, we show that if a finitely presented group G is the fundamental group of a finite fake surface in which the link of any vertex is not homeomorphic to the 1-skeleton of a tetrahedron, then there is a finite 2-complex K with pi(1)(K) congruent to G and whose universal cover (K) over tilde has the proper homotopy type of a 3-manifold. As a consequence, the cohomology group HL(G; ZG) is free abelian. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. MSC: 57M07; 57M10; 57M20.