The Decades-Long Hunt for America’s ‘Black Widower’ Thomas Randolph

In May 2008, Thomas Randolph contacted Las Vegas police to report a home invasion, claiming an intruder had shot his sixth wife, Sharon Causse. Randolph stated he found Causse bleeding on the floor and fatally shot the masked assailant, identified as Mike Miller, in self-defense. However, Detective Dean O’Kelley noticed critical inconsistencies: the intruder’s ski mask was found clean in the garage, no bullet casings were present in the hallway where shots were allegedly fired, and there was an 12-minute delay between when neighbors heard gunfire and when Randolph made his call.

Veteran journalist Dan Slepian joined forces with O’Kelley, initiating an investigation that would span 15 years and expose a pattern of suspicious deaths linked to Randolph. Their findings are chronicled in the Netflix documentary “The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part,” directed by Chris Smith. Slepian noted that each discovery widened the scope of the case, revealing a decades-long series of marriages ending in death and financial gain for Randolph.

As the investigation deepened, investigators uncovered that Randolph had become the beneficiary of Causse’s will and held a $350,000 life insurance policy on her just months into their marriage. Additionally, Miller’s relatives revealed that the handyman had been in frequent contact with Randolph, who had allegedly asked Miller if he wanted to kill his wife. Despite this leads, no arrest warrant was immediately issued.

The scope of Randolph’s alleged crimes extended far beyond the Causse case. Investigators traced a pattern back to his first wife, Kathy, who filed for divorce after Randolph attempted to hire someone to kill her. Randolph subsequently married Becky Gault in 1983, the same day his divorce from Kathy was finalized. Gault died of a gunshot wound to the head in 1986. Although initially ruled a suicide, the case was reopened after Randolph collected a half-million-dollar insurance payout. An acquaintance testified that Randolph had hired him to murder Gault, but Randolph was acquitted of murder, though convicted of witness tampering.

Over the following years, Randolph married three more women. One, Frances, died following heart surgery despite Randolph’s claims of medical malpractice, after which he collected insurance money and sued the hospital. Another, Leona Stapleton, died of cancer shortly after their wedding.

Randolph was arrested in January 2009 at his mother’s home in Utah. During his detention, he attempted to manipulate the legal process, delaying proceedings and firing attorneys. He also attempted to keep evidence from Gault’s death out of the trial, predicting in conversations with Slepian that the court would exclude it. His prediction came true in 2020 when the Nevada Supreme Court reversed his death sentence, ruling that the previous trial should not have admitted evidence from the 1980s case.

During a retrial in 2023, Detective O’Kelley provided detailed testimony highlighting the inconsistencies in Randolph’s account of the Causse shooting. Combined with a video reenactment by Randolph that investigators found problematic, the jury convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of first-degree murder. Randolph, now 71, was sentenced to 60 years to life. He continues to maintain his innocence and has filed multiple appeals, including a recent denial in September 2026.