San Quentin Death Row serial killer and former police officer dies of natural causes

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - A San Quentin Death Row inmate who used to be a Millbrae police officer and was convicted of being a serial killer in the 1980s, has died of natural causes, California prison officials said.

Anthony J. Sully died on Sept. 8 at the age of 79, according to the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. 

Sully was sentenced to death in San Mateo County on June 3, 1986, for the murders of Kathryn Barrett, 24; Barbara Searcy, 22; Gloria Jean Fravel, 24, Brendan Oakden, 19; Michael Thomas 24, and Phyllis Melendez, 20. 

He killed them at his warehouse in Burlingame, and them put some of the bodies in metal drums and poured concrete over them. He dumped some of them in Golden Gate Park.

He was arrested in 1983 after detectives matched his fingerprints to the ones found on the bodies of three of his victims. 

A jury found him guilty on call counts, and after the verdict was read, he made a 40-minute speech claiming he was innocent. 

He was admitted to San Quentin’s death row on June 15, 1986.