Netflix’s latest true-crime documentary, The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part, follows the decades-long investigation into Thomas Randolph, a Nevada man who was married six times, with several of his wives dying in unusual circumstances.
Nicknamed the “Black Widower”, Randolph was eventually convicted of murdering his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, who was shot dead at their Las Vegas home in 2008.
What is The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part about?
At the centre of the documentary is the murder of Randolph’s sixth wife, Sharon Causse, in 2008 and the work of Las Vegas police detective Dean O’Kelley and Dateline journalist Dan Slepian to uncover what happened.
Randolph claimed Causse had been killed by their handyman, Michael Miller, during a home invasion and that he then shot Miller in self-defence. However, O’Kelley became suspicious of Randolph’s account after examining the crime scene.
Slepian, whose work has included investigating cases involving wrongfully convicted people, also began looking into the case after receiving a tip that there was more to the story.
As O’Kelley built a case against Randolph, Slepian followed the investigation, which eventually uncovered details about Randolph’s five previous marriages. Causse was the fourth of his six wives to die.
Who were Thomas Randolph's six wives?
Randolph married his first wife, Kathryn Thomas, in 1975. The couple had two children, Justus and Krista, before divorcing in 1983.
On the same day his divorce from Thomas was finalised, Randolph married his second wife, Becky Gault. Gault died from a gunshot wound to the head at their Utah home in November 1986. Her death was initially ruled a suicide but was later reclassified.
Randolph was charged with her murder in 1988 after collecting a $500,000 life insurance payout. His friend and handyman, Eric Tarantino, testified that Randolph had asked him to kill Gault, but that he refused.
Randolph was acquitted of Gault's murder in 1989 after his lawyers argued that she died by suicide. He was later convicted of witness-tampering for offering an undercover police officer $10,000 to kill Tarantino and sentenced to up to five years in prison, although the conviction was later expunged.
Randolph married his third wife, Gayna Allmon, in October 1995. The marriage ended in divorce. Allmon later claimed Randolph had once fired a gun in her direction while cleaning it.
Randolph later married his fourth wife, Francis Randolph. She died in April 2004 after undergoing heart surgery.
His fifth wife was Leona Stapleton, who died of cancer.
What happened to Sharon Causse?
Causse, 57, was shot and killed at the couple’s Las Vegas home on May 8, 2008.
Randolph told police that Miller had killed Causse during a home invasion and that he then shot Miller in self-defence. Prosecutors later argued that Randolph had hired Miller to kill Causse before killing him to cover up the crime.
Randolph was arrested in January 2009 and pleaded not guilty. It would be another eight years before the case went to trial, with delays caused in part by changes to his legal team and numerous motions filed in the case.
At his first trial, prosecutors argued that Randolph had arranged Causse’s murder in an attempt to collect a life insurance payout worth up to $360,000 and then killed Miller to conceal his involvement.
In June 2017, Randolph was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death.
Why was Thomas Randolph’s original conviction overturned?
Randolph’s conviction and death sentence was overturned in 2020, with the judge ruling that the trial court had wrongly allowed evidence relating to the death of his second wife, Becky Gault, in 1986 to be presented to the jury.
Randolph was granted a new trial and in August 2023 was convicted for a second time. He was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison.
Randolph has continued to maintain his innocence. “I didn’t kill Sharon,” he said during his sentencing hearing in April 2024. “I have nothing to do with this.”
Where is Thomas Randolph now?
Randolph, now 71, is serving his sentence at Lovelock Correctional Centre in Pershing County, Nevada. He appears in the Netflix documentary and continues to maintain his innocence.
He has also appealed his 2023 conviction, with the Nevada Supreme Court rejecting his most recent challenge in September 2026.
