A new docuseries explores the bizarre and confusing story of Thomas Randolph: the man who was married six times, only to have four of his wives die mysteriously.
The Investigation Discovery series The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph will be available on Max from July 16.
The episodes explore whether Randolph is a calculating killer or just unlucky. After each murder, he loses his wife, but he is hundreds of dollars richer thanks to the many life insurance policies he has paid out.
Randolph, now 69, originally from Nevada, earned his nickname “Black Widower” after his four wives died in grisly circumstances.
In the trailer for the series, Randolph is seen in prison, talking about the death of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, who was shot to death in a staged home invasion in 2008.
A new docuseries will explore the bizarre and twisted story of Thomas Randolph; he was married six times, with four of his wives dying mysteriously
In the 2017 trial, prosecutors accused him of arranging for her murder by his friend and handyman Michael Miller in what appeared to be a home invasion to collect more than $300,000 in life insurance benefits.
Randolph, who maintains his innocence in the circumstances surrounding Causse’s death, recounts the night his sixth wife was murdered in the short trailer.
“Let’s start with Sharon,” he begins. “Okay, nice dinner for Mother’s Day and she says, ‘Let’s go home and have sex.'”
He continues: ‘Everything we did was compatible – the best sex ever, the best grandma…’
Next we see a 911 call from Randolph, reporting the death of his wife, and a news report stating that a woman and the suspected masked and armed burglar have been shot.
“Which version of events is the truth?” someone asks, supplemented with clips of Randolph’s daughter admitting she doesn’t know whether her father is innocent or not, supplemented with interviews with the victims’ families and legal analysts.
Causse died in May 2008 after Miller, masked and armed, entered Randolph’s Nevada home and shot her to death.
Randolph was convicted for the second time for the deaths of Causse and the hitman, Michael Miller, he hired to kill her.
Randolph, who maintains his innocence in the circumstances surrounding Causse’s death, recounts the night his sixth wife was murdered in the short trailer
Prosecutors accused him of arranging for his friend and handyman Michael Miller to kill his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, in what appeared to be a home invasion.
The episodes explore whether Randolph is a calculating killer or just unlucky; each death leaves him without a wife
Randolph called 911 after the apparent home invasion and reported his wife’s death
He was retried after the state Supreme Court ruled a new trial was necessary. The high court ruled in 2017 that the jury should never have heard evidence about the 1986 death of Randolph’s second wife, Becky Gault, in Utah.
Randolph was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was overturned in 2020.
Jurors in the 2017 and 2023 trials heard testimony from and about several of his ex-wives, revealing that he was a violent, abusive and manipulative man who first married women and then abused them.
Kathryn Thomas
Randolph married his first wife in 1975, when she was only 18 years old and he was 20.
During Randolph’s first trial, Thomas, who divorced him in 1983, told the jury he was a controlling, manipulative and emotionally abusive person.
She revealed an incident where he threw a bowl of oatmeal against the wall because it had no sugar in it.
After their remarriage, she and her new husband moved to Washington to put some distance between them and Randolph.
Sharon Causse (left) died after Randolph hired a friend of his to kill her and make it look like a botched robbery. His other wives, including Kathryn Thomas (right), testified in his trials
Becky Gault
Prosecutors told the jury that Gault was found dead with a bullet in her skull in the home she shared with Randolph, just three years after she married him.
The couple married on the same day in 1983, when his divorce from Kathryn Thomas became final.
Randolph received a $500,000 life insurance payout after her death was initially ruled a suicide.
He was later charged and acquitted of her murder after officers discovered he was singing songs about her murder.
Randolph also tried to hire a hitman to kill her, who turned out to be a police officer.
Randolph pleaded guilty to witness tampering, but he was never convicted of her murder.
Becky Gault (left) was found with a bullet in her head, although Randolph was never convicted of her murder. Gayna Allmon (right) told the jury she believes he tried to kill her in a shooting attempt while they were married
Gayna Allmon
Randolph’s third wife told the jury at his first trial that she believes Randolph tried to kill her by shooting her.
She said Randolph shot her while they were married while he was cleaning his gun.
The bullet had left a hole in their kitchen and she thought her life was in danger after this.
Randolph did not allow Francis Thomas’ daughter to see her while she was in the hospital
Francis Thomas
Thomas died in hospital in 2004 after a failed heart operation. A witness, Glen Morrison, told the jury that Randolph had asked him to kill her and stage the crime scene as a robbery, in a similar manner to the way his future wife Sharon Causse died.
Thomas’ daughter was not allowed to visit her mother when she was ill.
In addition, Randolph is said to have cremated his wife’s body within 24 hours of her death.
While he was married to Leona Stapleton, his fifth wife, little is known about her in the public eye. Her family told the court at his first trial that she had died of cancer.
The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph will be available on Max from July 16.