Thomas Randolph sounded convincing on the 911 call. His wife had been shot by a masked intruder, he told the dispatcher. He had fired back in self-defense. But the story unraveled almost immediately, and nearly two decades later, it has become one of the most bizarre true-crime cases ever told: a man married six times, four of his wives dead under suspicious circumstances, and a Netflix documentary finally piecing it all together.
Who Is Thomas Randolph?
Thomas Randolph is a former paralegal from Nevada who became known as “The Black Widower” after investigators discovered that four of his six wives had died under mysterious circumstances. He is currently serving 60 years to life in prison after being convicted twice for the 2008 murders of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, and the hitman he hired to kill her.
Randolph was born in February 1955 in South Carolina and worked in the legal field, which prosecutors later argued gave him a working knowledge of how to manipulate the system. He was described as charming, jokey, and conniving by those who covered his trials.
What Happened to Sharon Causse?
On May 8, 2008, Thomas Randolph and his wife Sharon Causse returned home from a Mother’s Day dinner. Randolph lingered in his car for a few minutes listening to the radio while Sharon went inside.
Moments later, Randolph called 911, claiming a masked intruder had shot his wife. He told police he grabbed a gun and fired at the man, killing him. The intruder, he said, was 38-year-old Michael Miller, a handyman he had befriended.
But detectives noticed inconsistencies almost immediately. Randolph recognized Miller despite claiming the man was wearing a mask. The two had spoken on the phone hundreds of times in the months leading up to the killing. Prosecutors alleged that Randolph had hired Miller to stage a home invasion and murder Sharon so he could collect more than $300,000 in life insurance.
Randolph was arrested in January 2009. He was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to death, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2021, ruling that the jury should not have heard evidence about the death of his second wife. At his retrial in 2023, he was found guilty again and sentenced in April 2024 to 60 years to life in prison.
The Six Wives
Randolph’s marital history is staggering. He was married six times, and four of his wives died:
Kathryn Thomas – Married 1975, divorced 1983. She later testified against him, describing him as controlling and manipulative.
Becky Gault – Married 1983, died in 1986 from a gunshot wound to the head. Randolph received a $500,000 life insurance payout. He was charged with her murder but acquitted in 1989.
Gayna Allmon – Married after Gault’s death, later separated. She claimed Randolph once shot toward her while cleaning his gun, leaving a hole in their kitchen wall.
Francis Thomas – Married after Allmon. Died in 2004 following heart surgery. Reports indicated she was also the target of a murder-for-hire plot.
Leona Stapleton – Little is known about her. Randolph told others she died of cancer.
Sharon Causse – His sixth wife, killed in 2008. Her death led to Randolph’s conviction.
The Documentary: The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part
The Netflix documentary, directed by Chris Smith (executive producer of Tiger King), premieres September 30, 2026. It follows veteran Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepian, who was invited by Las Vegas homicide detective Dean O’Kelley to document the investigation from day one.
Slepian spent nearly 20 years following the case, filming everything himself with a handheld camera. The documentary is told from his point of view, taking viewers behind the scenes of an investigation that uncovered Randolph’s six marriages and the pattern of suspicious deaths.
“Randolph is the most unusual murder defendant I’ve ever covered by far,” Slepian said.
The Bottom Line
Thomas Randolph is serving 60 years to life for orchestrating the murder of Sharon Causse and killing the man he hired to do it. He has maintained his innocence throughout, even delivering a rambling speech at his sentencing insisting he “didn’t kill Sharon.” Prosecutors say he was motivated by greed and has never taken responsibility. The Netflix documentary arrives September 30, bringing one of the strangest true-crime sagas of the past two decades back into the spotlight.
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