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Roman Szalajko, 62, was stabbed to death when he answered the door to his flat in Kennington in February 1984.
The case had gone cold until a review in 2013 identified Paul Bryan as a suspect, the Old Bailey heard.
But Bryan, who was 22 and living in Hammersmith at the time of the killing, appeared to have vanished from the face of the earth, the jury was told.
An officer tracked him down after it was discovered that Bryan had stolen the identity of a dead man with the same name, the court heard.
Following his arrest at Stansted Airport last year, Bryan, now 62, admitted having a false identity document but denied the murder of Mr Szalajko.
Opening his trial on Tuesday (October 24), prosecutor Louis Mably KC said the Polish victim was a longstanding UK resident and a divorced father-of-two.
He had a number of “lady friends” but lived alone in a flat in Kennington, south London, which has since been demolished.
A known gambler, he was “secretive” and kept large amounts of cash at home, sometimes going out with thousands of pounds in his wallet, jurors were told.
On the morning of February 7 1984, Mr Szalajko was on the phone to a builder friend, Michael Peddubriwny, when he broke off, saying in Polish: “Excuse me a moment, there’s someone at the door.”
As the line was left open, Mr Peddubriwny heard the victim say loudly in English: “What do you want? Help! Help!”
Mr Peddubriwny shouted down the phone: “Roman, what’s going on?” but the line went dead, having been cut, jurors heard.
He called 999 in a “panic” and two police officers went to the flat, where they found Mr Szalajko slumped in a chair in the living room with a fatal stab wound to his stomach.
His body was still warm to the touch, there was evidence of a search, and the constables noticed lengths of hair on the floor, Mr Mably said.
An investigation was launched and evidence was collected…
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