Scully's victims included an Oakland prostitute and three hookers slain on the San Francisco peninsula. Three other victims - including a drug pusher, his prostitute girlfriend, and a teenage punk rocker - were found in Golden Gate Park, their bodies jammed into 55-gallon oil drums, on May 3, 1983. The drums had been cemented shut, but Scully had neglected to remove his fingerprints, and so the case was made. As police spokesmen told the press, "Right now we feel the motive was drugs. Probably, there were some sexual elements involved, too."

A San Mateo County jury convicted Scully of seven first-degree murders on June 4, 1986. Sentenced to life without parole, Scully shouted obscenities as deputies hustled him out of the courtroom to begin serving his time.