Thomas Randolph, 66, is sometimes known as the “Black Widower” because he’s been married six times and four of his wives are now dead. The interesting character, the subject of a three-part Dateline special, is currently in prison awaiting a new trial after the Nevada Supreme Court threw out his murder conviction for the 2008 death of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse.
Randolph was also charged with the murder of his second wife, Becky Gault Randolph, who died of a gunshot wound to the head in 1986. Randolph’s fourth wife, Francis Randolph, died in the hospital in 2004 while the 66-year-old told friends and family that his fifth wife, Leona Stapleton, died of cancer.
Randolph’s first and third wives are still alive today and they both testified for the prosecution in his murder trial in 2017. His first wife was Kathryn Thomas, who married him at the age of 18.
Kathryn Thomas Testified Against Her Ex-Husband & Said He Took Out a Life Insurance Policy After Their Wedding
Kathryn was Thomas Randolph’s first wife and she testified during his 2017 murder trial that he took out a life insurance policy on her shortly after they married, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. She was 18 when they married, she said, and shared that her husband was “controlling, manipulative and psychologically abusive,” the outlet wrote.
The couple divorced and Kathryn married Stephen Thomas, who also testified at Randolph’s trial for double homicide. He told the jury that Randolph had asked him on one occasion if he would be willing to kill someone for $25,000. After Kathryn and Stephen Thomas married, the couple moved away from Utah to Washington so they could get some distance between themselves and Randolph, she testified, according to the outlet.
She told the court that Randolph, who remarried the day his divorce was completed, had threatened to kill Stephen Thomas, the Review-Journal wrote. She said since Gault died, she’s carried an image of his second wife with her. “That picture gives me strength to express what I need to express for me and her,” she said.
Randolph Was Found Guilty of the Murder of His 6th Wife But the Supreme Court Overturned the Verdict & Called a New Trial
In 2017, Randolph was found guilty of conspiring to murder his sixth wife in 2008 in order to collect her $400,000 life insurance, KSNV reported. He was also convicted of Michael Miller’s murder, who prosecutors say he hired as a hitman to murder Causse. Randolph received two death sentences for the two first-degree murder charges later in 2017, the outlet wrote.
A few months ago, in December 2020, Randolph’s death sentence and murder convictions were overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court. The court said the jury should not have been allowed to hear that Randolph was charged and acquitted of the murder of his second wife due to Nevada law.
Randolph is still in prison today, at High Desert State Prison in Nevada, as he waits for a new trial for the first-degree murder charges in the death of Sharon Causse and Michael Miller.
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