A Twisted Nightmare - Part 2 - Wives of the Black Widower

Episode # 32 - The Black Widower - Part 2

Last week we covered the murder of Sharon Randolph on May 8th, 2008. Thomas Randolph called 911 and reported that his wife, Sharon, had been shot by an intruder, and he had shot and killed the intruder in self-defense. 

When the details of Tom’s story didn’t add up, Las Vegas metro detectives started digging deeper into his background and were stunned to find that Thomas had been married 5 times before he met Sharon – and 3 of those wives were dead. 

In part 2 we’ll talk about 4 of those previous 5 wives, and we think you'll start to notice some parallels. Tom Randolph was nothing if not consistent.

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on domestic violence, missing persons, and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun, and with me as always, is the one and only John.

[John] 

I am the only John in the room.

[Shaun] 

This week we are bringing you Part 2 of our 4-part series on the Black Widower, Thomas Randolph. If you haven’t listened to last week’s part 1, we recommend you go back and catch up before diving in here. 

Just a quick recap of last week – police questioned Tom Randolph about discovering, confronting, and shooting the intruder in the house, and his statements did not match the physical evidence at the scene, which called into question Tom’s whole story about what had happened that night. 

The police uncovered two major details about the events leading up to the crime that raised their suspicions. First, Tom had taken out life insurance policies on Sharon that totaled around $360,000, and second, the alleged “intruder” that Tom killed, Mike Miller, was a friend of Tom’s. 

According to Mike’s family, Mike had been telling them that he was going to come into some money soon, and he had even told his sister that Tom had asked him to kill his wife Sharon. 

At that point in the investigation, the detectives had formed the theory that Tom convinced Mike to kill Sharon, by grooming him to be a hitman and offering him money. Tom gave Mike the opportunity to murder Sharon by taking her out to dinner, and then having her walk into their home alone. Mike had entered the house with a key and waited for her to enter the house. 

Mike shot and killed Sharon as planned, and then Tom entered the house, double-crossed Mike, and murdered him, ensuring there would be no loose ends, he would keep all the life insurance proceeds for himself, and there would be no chance that Mike would ever snitch. 

Tom then called 911, playing both the victim of a horrific crime and a hero who had saved the day. 

Tom told the police that Mike had his ski mask on when Tom shot him, but the ski mask was found in the garage away from Mike’s body, and it did not have any bullet holes or blood on it. Detectives believed that Mike must have taken his ski mask off once Tom came into the house and the “job” was done.

Officers Dean O’Kelley and Rob Wilson went to the District Attorney’s office with their theory of the crime, hoping to get an arrest warrant for Thomas Randolph, but the D.As felt there wasn’t enough direct evidence to move the case forward. 

They were concerned that a jury wouldn’t convict Randolph, and worse they might come away with the impression that he was indeed the hero in the story as Tom painted himself to be. The jurors might feel that Tom was lucky that he had a gun handy to protect himself. And, the fact that the evidence doesn’t line up perfectly with Tom’s story probably wouldn’t matter to a jury. His defense attorneys would simply explain how panicked Tom was during the whole ordeal of having to fight for his life after witnessing the trauma of his wife’s murder. 

The District Attorneys also believed there would be no way of getting around the hearsay rule to have the statements that Mike made to his sister about Tom wanting him to kill Sharon actually be admissible in court. 

Without more evidence, the DAs were unwilling to bring the case forward. 

Their decision left Detectives O’Kelley and Wilson feeling frustrated and realizing that they needed to go even deeper in their investigation of Thomas Randolph and take a closer look at all of his past marriages. As part of their investigation, the detectives traveled extensively to identify witnesses and gather testimony. Their investigation took them to Utah several times, as well as to Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Carolina, as they worked to build the case against Tom. 

[John] 

As we mentioned, Tom had been married 5 times before he met Sharon. This week, we’re going to talk about 4 of his wives: Kathryn Thomas, Leona Stapleton, Gayna Allmon, and Francis Randolph. We are going to hold off on going into the details about Thomas’s second wife, Becky Gault for now, but more on her later. 

As we mentioned last week, Tom Randolph has a flamboyant personality. As one of his documentarians put it - “Thomas Randolph is a complicated, inappropriate, disturbing, and oddly engaging self-described narcissist that loves to talk.”

What has been noted by others with a background in psychology or criminal behavior, is that Tom has the innate ability to spot a vulnerable person, hone in on them, and ultimately manipulate them to get what he wanted. He would make people feel special and then turn on them. He’d start with flattery to suck them in, and then use them as a means to an end.

And if he couldn’t get what he wanted out of them, he moved on to someone else. During interviews, when he talks about his wives, he’s almost always talking about what they did FOR him and what he was able to get out of the relationship. 

As part of his pattern of behavior, he quickly moves on and remarries after the end of his previous relationships, whether the marriage ended in divorce or death, and also there are numerous allegations and admissions of cheating, because as we said, if Tom wasn’t getting what he wanted or needed out of a relationship, he would look to get the praise and adoration from another person. 

When one interviewer asked him to name his wives, he quickly rattled their names off, and then with a huge grin on his face asked, “Do you want the names of all my fiances too?”

We’ll start with Kathryn Thomas, Tom’s first wife. 

Tom and Kathryn met while Kathryn was in high school. The two of them got married in Utah on August 2, 1975, when she was 18, and Tom was 20. 

During their marriage, they had two children together, a daughter named Krista and a son named Justice. Tom has called his two children his “gift to the world.”

When Kathryn was interviewed by Detectives O’Kelley and Wilson, she told them that Tom was charming and witty at first and that she fell for that, but he was a complete control freak, and she eventually grew to be afraid of him.

One story she shared with detectives was that one morning, she made Thomas a bowl of oatmeal. When he sat down to eat it, he noticed that she did not put sugar on it, and it set him off. 

He became so enraged over the missing sugar that he picked up the bowl and threw it against the wall and screamed at her, saying that his mother ALWAYS put sugar on his oatmeal. 

That event stuck with Kathryn for 30 years, and it marked the beginning of the end for their marriage. 

[Shaun] 

The oatmeal incident showed Kathryn that Tom could be dangerous and after that, his toxic and abusive behavior just got worse. 

According to Kathryn, he had trouble keeping a job. He became more controlling and manipulative, and he wouldn’t stop harassing her. He started dealing drugs, developed a substance use disorder, and even began dating other women. She also told detectives that whenever he was arrested, his mother would bail him out. 

In later interviews, Tom admitted his marriage to Kathryn was bad and had even said it was his fault because he was cheating on her and using drugs. 

As time went on in their marriage, Kathyrn said his psychological abuse became even more intense.She said Tom “wanted to make her feel like a piece of crap”. His need to control her and to psychologically abuse her did not end, not even after their divorce in April of 1983. 

After her divorce, Kathryn started dating a man named Steven Thomas, who she would eventually marry. Randolph, being the control freak that he is, did not like that she had moved on and was dating someone else. 

[John] 

To say that Tom was unhappy about the relationship would be a serious understatement. He hated Steve, and he told Steve that his marriage to Kathryn was like “stealing meat from another man’s refrigerator,” 

Thomas once asked Steve if he would kill someone for $25,000 if he knew he could get away with it and unsurprisingly, Kathryn told detectives that she knew that Tom had taken out a life insurance policy on her shortly after their wedding. 

Tom had even threatened to have Steve killed, and finally, Steven and Kathryn moved to Washington State to get away from him but, since they had children together, they would continue to be in contact with each other. Kathryn even had a relationship with Thomas’s second wife, Becky Gault.

WIFE #2 - Beckie Gault

[Shaun] 

As we mentioned, Becky’s story will be covered next week because the details of her story are extensive. For now, we’ll just say that Beckie did not survive being married to Thomas Randolph.

His third wife was named Leona Stapleton, and according to Tom, she went by Lee. Despite our efforts to research and learn more about Leona, we weren't able to find much at all.  

What we do know is that she married Tom in 1994, and the two of them moved to Indiana. That marriage only lasted about 11 months before the two of them divorced. 

There was nothing in court testimony or in news reports about her so we know little about who she was, where she lived, how she met Tom or even the exact circumstances of her death.

Tom said she was beautiful, and called her an “island girl” because she was part Guamanian. In interviews, Tom recalled that she liked to party, and according to him, sometimes she would forget to come home. 

According to court testimony, Tom told his family and friends that Leona had died of cancer. She died approximately 10 years after their divorce was finalized. 

[John]

Our research has not uncovered any evidence that implies that Tom may have been responsible for Leona’s death or any evidence that investigators suspected her death from cancer was suspicious. No evidence was raised about any life insurance policies that Tom may have benefited from. 

Their relationship was very short-lived, and it’s evident from what we were able to learn about this case that her death did not raise any red flags with investigators. No details were entered into evidence and no family members were interviewed by the media talking about accountability or justice, so we just don’t have a lot to tell you about Leona. 

WIFE #4 - Gayna Allmon

[Shaun]

Tom’s fourth wife was named Gayna Allmon. He met her in 1995 through a newspaper ad (1995’s version of Match.com), and according to her testimony (she was happily one of the two lucky ex-wives of Tom’s who survived being married to him) she told the court that in the beginning, Tom showered her with gifts and attention, lovebombing her, which is his pattern.

Tom pushed for them to get married very early on, of course, and then took out life insurance policies on her. Not long into the marriage, Tom got arrested in a bar fight in which “people got shot” (it’s unclear who did the shooting, but Tom wasn’t charged in that case)

Gayna had some friendly contacts within the Police department who reached out to Gayna, knowing she was married to Tom, and warned her about Tom’s “violent nature”

[John]

One day, Tom was sitting at the dining room table, and Gayna was in the living room just a few feet away, and Tom was cleaning his gun. Of course, he assured her it wasn't loaded so there was nothing to be nervous about.

You can probably guess what happened. The gun went off, and thankfully missed Gayna, but only by only about a foot. 

This terrified her. She started screaming and yelling at him, but she could see the writing on the wall, and as soon as she could, decided she’d get out as soon as possible. She packed up while Tom was “at work”, whatever that was at the time, and went into hiding, staying with a friend while she worked to get a divorce finalized.

[Shaun]

He wasn't one to give up easily. One day while she was out driving, Tom found her and followed her, and tried to get her to pull over, but luckily she knew the area better than he did so she was able to lose him.

Gayna went on to be an important witness in Tom's trial because she observed his behavior firsthand. She testified about his controlling nature, his temper, his history of selling drugs, and of course the gun discharge which she considered to be an attempt on her life.

[John]

Thomas’ fifth wife was Francis Randolph. Francis was a single mom with one daughter named Rachel. Rachel talked a little bit about her mom in some of the testimony eventually, telling the court that her mom was sweet, always making sure she cooked lunch and dinner for her, and that she had a really positive outlook. 

Rachel said that Francis was always looking at the positive side of things and told the court that her mom had no enemies.. Everyone liked her, and her mom would sing the Tanya Tucker song “Delta Dawn” to her every night

One of the aspects we found strange in researching this case was that it was rare that one of the children of his wives initially had negative things to say about him, with Colleen being an exception.

He had a good relationship with Rachel. Playing the role of “stepdad” pretty convincingly, even doing things like taking her to gymnastics lessons, and encouraging her to participate in sports and extracurricular activities.

A lot of this will sound familiar, but Tom pressured Francis into marrying him only 6 months after they met, and almost immediately took out a large life insurance policy on her. 

Rachel would later testify that Tom had been physical with her mother. She shared that there was one incident where Frances went to Burger King and got him a sandwich, and there was mayonnaise on it, which he didn’t like, and he didn’t want. He then slammed the sandwich into Frances’s face, because it had mayonnaise on it. 

This sounds a lot like the incident with Kathryn and the oatmeal, and is another example of Tom’s abuse. 

[Shaun]

Francis unfortunately had some pretty serious health problems… specifically, she had a very serious problem with her heart that required surgery. She wasn't in much of a hurry to have it operated on though because of the riskiness of the surgery. 

Tom talked her into getting the surgery though, but before that happened, Tom convinced her to create a video will in which she says everything is to be left to him in the event something happens to her, and that she wanted Tom to raise Rachel because he’s a great stepdad.

You can hear Tom in the video. It's obvious that he is behind the camera recording the will, and he’s also coaching Francis through it, getting her to say all the things he wants her to say.

She did end up getting the surgery, and according to the doctors, she made it through the surgery just fine and was recovering. We’ll also note here that leading up to the surgery, Francis’s sister said that Francis looked awful. Her face was swollen on one side, and she suspected Tom was drugging her, of course, selling drugs (prescription and illicit) was just about the only long-term Job we ever discovered that Tom ever had.

Shortly after, Tom and Rachel were in the hospital with Francis, and Tom asked Rachel to step out of the hospital room, so he could discuss something with Francis. About 20 minutes later he came out of the room and told her that her mother had died. He made a real show of it apparently, crying and falling on his knees dramatically. 

[John]

To be clear, Tom claims that she either died in surgery or died as a direct result of the surgery, but there was never any evidence of that. Her death was completely unsolved but definitely happened after the surgery, and her doctors absolutely said she was recovering well.

Rachel was devastated, and so confused about how that could have happened since she’s just spoken to her mom 20 minutes earlier. Tom told the hospital he didn’t want an autopsy claiming that he “didn’t want her cut up into pieces”. 

Instead, he had her cremated within 24 hours. If there was any evidence of foul play, all that evidence was lost in the cremation. As you expect, Tom got the insurance payout, and we learned that he claims that the money was going to pay for Rachel’s college education, but there is no evidence that’s true, and in fact, there are no clear answers on what happened to that insurance payout

Unbelievably, Tom also sued the Utah hospital where Francis died for wrongful death and won a 1.2m dollar settlement from them.

The prosecuting attorney noted that horrifyingly, Tom had sent Francis’ cremains to her family split up among several “pill bottles”. It's almost unimaginable how callous he was to her surviving loved ones.

[Shaun]

Francis’s will stated that she wanted Rachel to be raised by Tom because “Rachel thinks of him as her father”. Rachel told a story in which Tom and her mother put her up to making up a story that her bio-dad Jay was a pedophile so she would never want to live with him. 

She explained that she regretted going along with that and that it wasn't true. It was clear that was just another example of Tom Randolph manipulating people, in this case, a young girl who just wanted to stay with her mom.

It gets even worse, and this is going to sound REALLY familiar. Tom also attempted to hire a man named Glen Morrison to kill Francis. He told Morrisson to make it look like a robbery, kill Francis, and “shoot him in the backside” to make it look legitimate. 

Eventually, Morrison would testify that he said “no” without even considering the idea. He was convinced that Randolph would kill him after he killed Francis. It was clear to detectives that Glen Morrison was able to see through Tom’s manipulation and sense that he would be in danger, where Mike Miller did not. 

[John]

Tom’s MO here is unmistakable and remarkably consistent. He would meet a woman somehow, online or wherever, and pressure her to marry him right away. Then he’d take out multiple life insurance policies on her, and then locate and start grooming someone he thought he could get to murder her so he could collect the insurance money. If that plan failed, he wasn't above doing it himself. 

The unbelievable thing is how many times it seems to have worked.

In Part 3 we’ll talk in detail about Tom’s second wife, Beckie Rae Gault. What happened with her has a crucial connection to the eventual case dealing with the murder of Sharon Randolph, wife #6.

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