Thomas Randolph wears charm and charisma like camouflage.
He slithered through the grass of the criminal justice system as four of his six wives died over the course of two decades, says Dateline producer,
Dan Slepian, who frequently interviewed Randolph. Before receiving a double murder conviction and 60-year sentence, he would flirt with the camera, according to Slepian. In one recording, he batted his eyes, tilted to his head and asked, "Am I beautiful?" In another clip, when asked about his wives' names, he quipped, "Do you want the names of my fiancées too?"
"The scrutiny and the allegations against him were almost like a badge of honor," Slepian tells USA TODAY.
Netflix's "The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part," streaming now, unearths archived footage from police records, a homicide investigation and conversations with the convicted felon, two of his ex-wives and close contacts of the victims. The documentary, which features Slepian, reported that Randolph took out multiple insurance policies on his wives, filmed one wife detailing what she wanted to do with her remains and allegedly sought out a hitman for several wives.
"I've spent a career investigating cases and dealing with people locked in a prison cell who never did anything, mostly people of color, who are screaming from the top of their lungs into the wind and no one's listening to them," Slepian says. "Randolph couldn't get the system to ignore him. He was pushing the buttons and playing that bureaucratic piano."
Thomas Randolph's representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Here's everything you need to know on where Randolph is now and the stories behind his six wives.
First wife: Kathryn "Kathy" Thomas
Kathy Thomas met Randolph in high school and married him in August 1975 at age 18. She called him "witty" and "charming," but over time said he became psychologically afflicted. Thomas separated from Randolph in 1983.
Second wife: Rebecca "Becky" Gault
Randolph married Rebecca "Becky" Gault in April 1983, a day after divorcing Thomas. Slepian reported in the documentary that Randolph had been with Gault before the divorce. Three years later, Randolph was arrested after driving recklessly with a bottle of vodka in the car. On November 7, 1986, Gault's body was found shot once in the head. When detectives arrived they found a suicide note and a gun in her hand.
Rosealie Allred, Gault's aunt, was not a fan of Randolph's. In an archived clip featured in the documentary, she said Randolph took out three life insurance policies out on Gault. Allred also referred to a basement room where he'd ask Gault to participate in inappropriate activities with other girls.
"I asked her, 'Doesn't it kill you to watch him do that with other girls,' she said, 'Yeah,'" Allred said. "'But I do it because he wants me to.'"
In 1988, Thomas Randolph, who collected Gault's life insurance policies, was charged with murder after his friend Eric Tarantino alleged Randolph previously asked him to kill Gault. Before Tarantino went into hiding for two years, he alleged he and Randolph would practice finding different ways to kill her. Randolph was acquittedin 1989, which defense attorneys argued was a suicide.
Third wife: Leona Stapleton
He married Leona Stapleton in March 1994. The two met in Utah and later moved to Indiana, the documentary reported. They got divorced, and she later died of cancer. Little additional information is known about his third wife.
Fourth wife: Gayna Allmon
Nineteen months after wedding Leona Stapleton, Randolph married Gayna Allmon in October 1995. Allmon said she discovered her ex-husband in a newspaper ad and said he was "everything you basically wanted to hear." She was unaware of his second wife Gault's death when they married. An Indiana police department called Allmon to report that her husband was involved in a bar shooting. One night, while Thomas Randolph was wiping down firearms at home, a bullet went off. That was the final straw for Allmon, who said she packed up her things and left soon after. Her departure was well timed because Randolph allegedly had approached a man named Glenn Morrison looking for a murder-for-hire, the documentary reported.
Fifth wife: Frances Randolph
Thomas Randolph married his fifth wife Frances in August 1997. He met Frances Randolph while married to Gayna Allmon, Slepian reported, and convinced her to separate from her current husband. In an effort to manage a preexisting heart condition, Frances Randolph underwent a surgical procedure. She had a positive recovery until Thomas Randolph said she died at the hospital, alleging it was a result of malpractice. After her death in April 2004, Randolph collected her life insurance, Slepian continued, and settled with the hospital for wrongful death.
Before her death, Thomas Randolph also asked her to film a video where she said she'd like to be cremated and detailed her unconditional love for him.
"He saw women as prey," Slepian tells USA TODAY. "He saw women as a means to an end. Looking back now, he lived in large part for decades off the proceeds of his dead wives. So that tells you everything you need to know about how he thinks of women."
Sixth wife: Sharon Causse
Sharon Causse and Randolph met on the online dating site Match.com, and after a cruise to Mexico, the couple married in March 2007. Three months later, Causse wrote her will and took out three life insurance policies worth $350,000, the documentary reported. As tensions rose within their marriage, Causse changed her will and made her daughter Colleen Boyer a large beneficiary, Boyer said in the documentary.
In May 2008, Sharon Causse was shot and killed after the couple went on a Mother's Day date. In a reenactment of the killings, Randolph said he found his wife shot in the hallway. After calling her name, he said he grabbed a gun and shot a man in a black ski mask, later revealed to be Michael James Miller.
Prosecutors have claimed Randolph hired Miller to kill his wife so he could collect her life insurance money. Following his wife's death, Randolph turned on Miller and shot him too.
Randolph was convicted in 2017, which was overturned by A Nevada Supreme Court after ruling that jurors should not have been informed about the death of his second wife, Becky Gault. In a 2023 retrial, after a delayed trial date as Randolph hired and fired lawyers, a jury found Randolph guilty of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Where is Thomas Randolph now?
On April 2024, Randolph, 71, was sentenced to 60 years to life for the killings of Sharon Causse and Michael James Miller. He's serving time at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. In September 2026, a Nevada Supreme court denied his appeal, and upheld the conviction for killing his sixth wife.
Slepian spoke to Randolph last month. He says he emails the convicted felon and adds money to Randolph's account so that they can call each other. Randolph has continued to maintain his innocence, he says, and he wouldn't be surprised if there are other victims.
"He had a girlfriend that he was leaving Sharon for at the time," Slepian tells USA TODAY. "She thought she was potentially a 7th victim."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where is Thomas Randolph now? Update on 'The Widower' case
