Who were Thomas Randolph’s six wives and why was he known as The Black Widower?
THOMAS Randolph was jailed for sixty years for the murder of his sixth wife, but what happened was remarkably similar to events in his previous marriages.
Read on to find out about the man who’s the subject of a new documentary, as well as the strange circumstances surrounding the deaths of three of his other wives.
Who is Thomas Randolph?
Thomas Randolph, from Nevada in the United States, is nicknamed the Black Widower after four of his six wives died in strange circumstances.
He’s is the subject of the new crime documentary The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph, which asks whether he’s a calculated killer – or just really unlucky.
In April 2024 Randolph was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison for the murder of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, along with the man he’d hired to kill her.
Sharon died in 2008 after Michael Miller, masked and armed, broke into their house in Nevada and shot her.
Randolph then shot Miller dead, despite saying he recognised him as his friend and handyman.
But the court heard how the pair had spoken to each other on hundreds of phone calls.
Prosecutors alleged that Randolph arranged for Miller to murder his wife so he could claim more than $300,000 from an insurance policy he’d taken out on her life.
Thomas Randolph had been married five times before he wed Sharon.
There appear to be a lot of remarkable similarities in events that took place during each marriage.
Who were Thomas Randolph’s wives?
Four of Thomas Randolph’s wives died whilst he was married to them, and the other two testified against him.
Kathryn Thomas
Randolph married Kathryn Thomas in 1975, when she was 18 and he was 20.
They got divorced in 1983, and she later testified against him when he stood trial for the murder of one of his following wives, describing him as controlling and manipulative.
Becky Gault
Becky Gault was found dead at home with a bullet in her skull, just three years after she married Randolph.
After she died, Randolph received a $500,000 pay-out from a life insurance policy.
He was charged for her murder and, even though the hitman he tried to hire to kill her turned out to be a cop, he was still acquitted.
Gayna Allmon
Gayna Allmon married Thomas Randolph after the death of his second wife.
She says she believes he tried to kill her too.
When they were married, she says Randolph shot towards her whilst he was cleaning his gun.
He missed, but the bullet left a hole in their kitchen wall.
Francis Thomas
Francis Thomas married Thomas Randolph following his divorce from Gayna Allmon.
She died in 2004 following botched heart surgery.
It was reported that she was also the target of a hit-for-hire.
A jury heard how a man called Glen Morrison claimed Randolph tried to hire him to murder his wife, as well as to wound him and make it look like a robbery.
Morrison says he backed out because he suspected Randolph would then murder him.
Leona Stapleton
Little is known about Leona Stapleton.
Randolph told family and friends that she died of cancer.
Sharon Causse
Thomas Randolph’s sixth and last wife Sharon Causse died in 2008 in what appeared to be a home invasion.
At the trial that followed, prosecutors alleged that Randolph hired Michael Miller to murder her, however he then fatally shot Miller himself after he’d killed his wife.
How to watch The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph
The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph is showing on US TV crime channel Investigation Discovery.
It’s due to hit screens on July 16, as well as appearing on American streaming service Max – which is set to launch in the UK soon.
Until then, it’s likely it’ll end up on the Investigation Discovery channel in the UK, and on their Discovery+ streaming service.
Amazon Prime have the rights to show it in some countries too.