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Who Is Thomas Randolph, The Murder Suspect At The Center Of 'The Widower?'
Thomas Randolph was convicted of killing his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, and Michael Miller. He's now facing a new trial after jurors heard reference to the death of his second wife.
Over several decades, Thomas Randolph wed six women and was left a widower after four of those marriages. In some of these deaths, life insurance policies taken out on his wives have brought him significant payouts — a pattern that eventually resulted in Randolph being eyed by investigators as suspicious, and even a possible serial murderer. In 2020, he had his conviction on murder charges overturned and soon will be headed back to court.
Randolph, 65, was sentenced to death in 2017 for the 2008 murders of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, and a man named Michael Miller, who he initially claimed had shot her. Randolph’s motive in the killing was determined to be a $360,000 payout from a life insurance policy taken out on Causse. However, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the double-murder conviction in January and ordered a new trial for Randolph, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, as officials decided that the jury had heard evidence that could have tainted their objectivity.
The evidence in question had to do with the death of one of Randolph’s former wives. At the trial, prosecutors had noted that there were apparent similarities between Causse’s murder and the death of Randolph’s second wife, Becky Randolph, in Utah in 1986. While her death was initially considered to be a suicide, investigators later charged the widower with her killing. While Randolph did plead guilty to felony witness tampering in that case, he was acquitted of her murder in 1989. As with Causse, he had an insurance policy payout to gain after Randolph’s death, to the sum of $250,000, the Review-Journal reported in 2009.
Was it just coincidence, or could Randolph have had a diabolical modus operandi? Why did Causse become the fourth wife of his to die? This pattern of deaths in Randolph’s life is examined in “The Widower,” a three-part docuseries created by the producers of “Dateline.” The show's supervising producer, Dan Slepian, has spent the past decade following Randolph and tracing his alleged crimes.
In the series, Slepian travels across the country over a 10-year period, and according to a press release for the show, spends time “interviewing and documenting in real-time the alleged killer as he tantalizes law enforcement, the legal team, and even the ‘Dateline’ cameras in a twisted game of cat and mouse.”
Randolph, dubbed the “Black Widower,” was known for his eccentric look, often long, feathered hair, and his arrogant demeanor. He worked odd jobs and, while doing so, routinely charmed his way in and out of different woman’s lives.
“Thomas Randolph is a complicated, inappropriate, disturbing, and oddly engaging self-described narcissist that loves to talk," Slepian told Oxygen.com.
All three parts of the show are now available to stream on both NBC’s website and on Peacock. The show will stream on Oxygen on Monday, Aug. 16, Tuesday, Aug. 17, and Wednesday, Aug. 18 at 8/7c.
