Bay Area ex-cop turned serial killer passes away from natural causes
A notorious serial killer, who was detained at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in the Bay Area, passed away on Friday due to natural causes, as announced by the California Department of Corrections on Monday.
The deceased, Anthony Sully, aged 79, was convicted and condemned to death in 1986 for the heinous acts of fatally shooting and mercilessly beating six individuals, including five women and one man, during a chilling spree that spanned over six months in 1983.
Born in San Francisco, Sully grew up in Millbrae, where he served as a member of the police force from 1967 to 1974. However, he eventually decided to abandon his policing career in the late ’70s and transitioned into an electrical contractor profession. He leased a hangar in Burlingame, which later became the haunting backdrop of his atrocities. Additionally, Sully ventured into investing in an escort service and engaging with sex workers while developing a destructive addiction to freebasing cocaine, as revealed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is important to note that some of his victims were individuals who worked in the sex industry.
The innocent lives that fell victim to Sully’s cruelty include Kathryn Barrett, aged 24, Barbara Searcy, aged 22, Gloria Jean Fravel, aged 24, Brenda Oakden, aged 19, Michael Thomas, aged 24, and Phyllis Melendez, aged 20.
Sully’s brutality is evident in the sadistic acts he committed against his victims. Fravel, for instance, endured not only severe beatings and torture but also the agonizing trauma of sexual assault before eventually succumbing to death by an ax. Barrett, on the other hand, was ruthlessly stabbed six times and then struck on the head with a sledgehammer. Additionally, a number of his victims were callously shot in the back of their heads as they unsuspectingly entered his dreaded hangar. Furthermore, Sully displayed an unimaginable level of depravity by placing some of his victims, completely nude, into metal drums that were filled with concrete. These drums were subsequently disposed of in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Throughout his court proceedings, Sully maintained his plea of not guilty. However, his final appeal was denied in 2013, reaffirming his conviction and sentence.
The life of Anthony Sully was declared extinguished at 2:21 a.m. in an external medical facility. The exact cause of his demise will be determined by the Marin County Coroner’s Office.
It is worth noting that California implemented a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019, halting the execution of condemned prisoners awaiting capital punishment.
