Stephen Port, 41, lured the men back to his flat and plied them with fatal doses of the date-rape drug GHB so he could have sex with them while they were unconscious, a court heard during his trial.
All four died of a drug overdose before Port dumped their bodies in or near a graveyard close to his home in Barking, east London, planting bottles of the drug on some of them and writing a fake suicide note for another in an attempt to cover up his crimes.
Port, who worked as a chef, carried out the murders to "satisfy his lust" for sex with young men who were rendered unconscious, the judge said.
He was found guilty on Wednesday of the murders of Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, Jack Taylor, and Anthony Walgate, all in their 20s, after jurors deliberated for more than 28 hours.
More From This Section
He was also convicted of a string of rapes and sexual assaults on other men who survived.
London's Metropolitan Police has been strongly criticised for failing to link the crimes sooner. The murders, which bore striking similarities, took place between June 2014 and October 2015,
The family of Taylor, who are planning legal action against the force, said: "We do believe Jack would still be here if they had done their job".
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is conducting an inquiry into the handling of the case and 17 officers are facing investigation into possible misconduct.
The gay newspaper PinkNews claimed its reporters contacted police about an alleged link between Port's victims nine months before a murder investigation was launched.
Police had been treating the deaths as non-suspicious.