The seemingly stern and authoritarian father of Special Agent Dana Scully, Captain William Scully was a lifelong careerist in the Navy. A man who did not approve of his daughter's renouncing of her medical career to take a job at the FBI, he was also not one to be openly critical towards her. Indeed, his affectionate nickname for her was Starbuck, and hers for him was Ahab, taken from the Herman Melville seafaring novel "Moby Dick".

William Scully died suddenly of a massive coronary during the Christmas period of 1993 at his home. He was survived by his wife Margaret, daughter Dana and sons Charles and Bill. Although entitled to a grave in Arlington Cemetery, he was buried at sea, to the tune of "Beyond the Sea", the song that was playing when he asked Margaret to marry him when he came home safely after the Cuban blockade. He has subsequently appeared to his daughter in several psychic visions, notably immediately after his death and later when she too was close to dying the following year (One Breath). Robin J. England / Matt Allair

A friend of Eco-Environmentalist, Steven Teague, and a witness to the attack of his friend as well as the loggers from the phosphorescent mites in the Olympic National Forests of Northwestern Washington State in 1994. He was one of three other companions. Spinney and Teague were labeled as "Monkey-wrenchers"--militant environmentalists who would sabotage the work of Lumber companies. Two weeks prior to the disappearances, loggers from Schiff-Immergut radioed that Spinney and Teague had gone on a spree, spiking trees and causing mischief. Initially, Teague and Spinney are the prime suspects for Mulder and Scully until proven otherwise.

Spinney is found in the Schiff-Immergut company logging encampment, scavenging for food, probably four days to a week after the mite attacks. He is found and held at gunpoint by Steve Humphreys, before being questioned by Agents Mulder, Scully and Ranger Moore. He insists that he and his friends had nothing to do with the disappearances of the lumberjacks, yet is reluctant to offer much information concerning the mite attacks. He is responsible for the sabotage of the vehicles, of spiking tires and emptying the gas tanks and filling them with rice. It is unclear if he's responsible for the damage to the radio.

His motives for going to the encampment become clear when he reveals his two other friends are in need of help three valleys over. He does call attention to Ranger Moore over the illegal felling of a ancient Douglas fir that was marked for conservation by workers of Schiff-Immergut, which Steve Humphreys defensively denies with a feeble counter accusation that Spinney and his men changed the markers for their own agendas.

Once Humphreys goes missing, Agent Mulder allows Spinney to leave from the encampment with their last remaining supply of gasoline for the camp's generator. Spinney makes a promise to return with a vehicle so that they can escape from the mites before the next nightfall. Spinney keeps his promise and returns to aid in a narrow escape, which isn't successful. When Spinney's Jeep is disabled, the mites attack while Spinney tries to repair the damage. Spinney flees into the forest in the night, to be allegedly cocooned and drained of life by the mites. He doesn't survive. Ironically, he becomes a victim of the very forces of nature he's trying to protect. Spinney appears to be a man of average build, somewhat gaunt at the time of the attacks, about 6 feet in height. He has short, scruffy light brown hair, a mustache, and blue eyes. He's around his early to mid thirties.