Contractible open 3-manifolds which non-trivially cover only non-compact   3-manifolds
  Suppose $M$ is a closed, connected, orientable, \irr\ \3m\ such that $G=\pi_1(M)$ is infinite. One consequence of Thurston's geometrization conjecture is that the universal covering space $\widetilde{M}$ of $M$ must be \homeo\ to $\RRR$. This has been verified directly under several different additional assumptions on $G$. (See, for example, \cite{2}, \cite{3}, \cite{6}, \cite{19}.) 
Robert Myers