Thomas Randolph’s wives: How four of six ended up dead

Four women married Thomas Randolph. Four of them died. The pattern runs through decades of insurance payouts, disputed circumstances, and one final conviction that tied the rest together. The Netflix documentary that dropped at the end of September and the Nevada Supreme Court’s denial of his latest appeal have pulled the case back into headlines just as viewers are finishing the series.

Early control and insurance interest

Kathryn Thomas married Thomas Randolph in 1975 at eighteen. She later testified that he began charming and witty, then turned psychologically abusive, throwing objects during arguments. Authorities told her he had taken out a life-insurance policy on her without her knowledge.

Thomas’s account set the template that prosecutors would cite decades later. She described the same controlling behavior and financial maneuvering that surfaced in each subsequent marriage. The couple divorced in 1983 and she survived to testify at the 2017 trial.

That same day Randolph married Becky Gault, the second wife. The marriage lasted three years. Gault died of a gunshot wound in November 1986, officially ruled a suicide. Randolph collected between a quarter-million and half-million dollars in insurance proceeds within weeks.

First death ruled suicide

Prosecutors in Utah charged Randolph with murder in 1989 but he was acquitted. The defense argued that Randolph was already in jail when Gault died. A former friend later alleged that Randolph had offered him money to kill Gault and split the insurance payout.

The same friend claimed Randolph later tried to silence him by offering an undercover officer cash and a car to eliminate the witness. Randolph pleaded guilty to witness tampering and served time, but the earlier acquittal stood.

Years after the verdict, Gault’s aunt told investigators that her niece had been planning to leave Randolph. That detail resurfaced in the 2026 documentary and fed renewed scrutiny of the 1986 ruling.

Brief marriage and cancer

Leona Stapleton married Randolph around 1994. The marriage lasted less than a year and ended in divorce. She died of liver and gallbladder cancer in 2006, long after the divorce and without any active criminal investigation tied to Randolph.

Stapleton’s death is the clearest outlier in the pattern. No insurance dispute or suspicious timing surrounded it. Still, the fact that Randolph had been married to her was added to the list of four deceased wives that prosecutors presented to later juries.

Family members described Stapleton as outgoing and kind. Randolph himself called her “fun” in one documentary interview, but the brevity of the marriage left few other public details.

Gun incident and escape

Gayna Allmon met Randolph through a personals ad around 1995. She later testified that while Randolph cleaned a gun in her kitchen the weapon discharged into the floor. She believed the shot was intentional.

Randolph maintained the gun had been loaded without his knowledge. Allmon moved out immediately, went into hiding, and finalized the divorce. She also testified at the 2017 trial, describing how quickly she felt unsafe.

Her account paralleled Kathryn Thomas’s testimony about early psychological pressure and added the detail of a loaded firearm in the home. Prosecutors used both survivors to establish a pattern of behavior that spanned multiple marriages.

Heart surgery and quick cremation

Francis Randolph married Thomas Randolph around 1997. She had a pre-existing heart condition and underwent elective surgery in 2004. Family members later claimed Randolph selected the doctor and restricted their access to the hospital.

She died during recovery. Randolph was reportedly the last person to see her alive. Her body was cremated within twenty-four hours. He collected life-insurance proceeds and later settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against the hospital.

No criminal charges were filed at the time. Francis’s sister and daughter later told documentary producers they suspected orchestration, citing the rapid cremation and the insurance payout as red flags that echoed earlier cases.

Final marriage and double homicide

Sharon Causse married Randolph in 2007. Within a year he had updated multiple life-insurance policies naming himself beneficiary for roughly three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars. On Mother’s Day 2008 she was shot inside their Las Vegas home.

Randolph told police an intruder had killed her and that he had shot the intruder, handyman Michael Miller, in self-defense. Prosecutors proved the deaths were a murder-for-hire plot that Randolph had staged as a burglary.

The 2017 conviction carried a death sentence. It was overturned in 2020 on evidentiary grounds but Randolph was retried and reconvicted in 2023. In April 2024 he received a sentence of sixty years to life. The Nevada Supreme Court denied his final appeal in late summer 2026.

Insurance thread across cases

Life-insurance policies appear in four of the six marriages. Kathryn Thomas discovered an undisclosed policy on herself. Becky Gault’s death produced a large payout. Francis Randolph’s policy paid out after her surgery. Sharon Causse’s policies were updated weeks before her murder.

Prosecutors argued the pattern showed motive rather than coincidence. Defense attorneys countered that insurance is common in second marriages and that no single payout proved intent. Jurors in the 2023 trial found the cumulative weight persuasive.

Surviving wives Thomas and Allmon both testified that Randolph discussed or arranged coverage without their full knowledge. Their accounts helped prosecutors link the financial element to the physical danger described in later marriages.

Documentary and renewed attention

The Netflix release on September 30, 2026, framed the case as a study in serial marriage and financial motive. It featured extended interviews with Kathryn Thomas, Gayna Allmon, and Francis Randolph’s family. Viewer discussions online have focused on the insurance timeline and the two acquittals that preceded the final conviction.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters noted that the documentary’s timing coincided with the appeal denial, keeping the story in local headlines. True-crime podcasts have revisited the 1989 Utah acquittal and asked whether earlier evidence of witness tampering might have changed that outcome.

Randolph remains at Lovelock Correctional Center. No further appeals are pending. The families of Becky Gault, Francis Randolph, and Sharon Causse continue to advocate for public recognition of the pattern that investigators eventually proved in court.

Pattern recognized too late

Four women married Thomas Randolph and did not survive the marriages or their immediate aftermath. Two others escaped and later testified. The insurance policies, the quick cremations, and the survivor accounts formed a through-line that only became actionable after Sharon Causse’s murder. The recent documentary and final court ruling have closed the legal chapter, but the pattern itself remains the clearest explanation for how four of the six wives ended up dead.