Is ‘The Widower’ on Netflix a True Story? Inside the Thomas Randolph Case

• Yes. The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part, on Netflix since Sept. 30, follows the real case of Thomas Randolph, a Las Vegas man who married six times. Four of his wives died.
• He is serving 60 years to life in a Nevada prison for the 2008 murders of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, and Michael Miller, the man prosecutors said he hired to kill her.
• The 91-minute film is built on footage Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepian shot in real time, starting the day after the killings.

It’s all real. The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part, the true crime documentary that arrived on Netflix on Wednesday, Sept. 30, tells the case of Thomas Randolph, a former paralegal who married six times. Four of his wives died, and he collected on life insurance more than once.

The film is directed by Chris Smith, an executive producer of Tiger King. It leans on footage that Dan Slepian, a veteran Dateline NBC producer, filmed as the investigation unfolded over 15 years, including jail interviews with Randolph himself.

What happened to Sharon Causse?

On the night of May 8, 2008, Randolph called 911 from his Las Vegas home. “My wife’s been shot,” he told the dispatcher. “There’s a guy in my house and I shot him.” The couple had just come back from a Mother’s Day dinner.

His account: he stayed in the car listening to the radio while Sharon went inside. A masked intruder carrying a bag of jewelry shot her. Randolph said he grabbed a gun from another room and shot the man, Michael Miller, killing him.

Detective Dean O’Kelley saw problems. The ski mask lay on the garage floor without blood on it. Shots were fired in the hallway, but no casings were found there. A neighbor heard gunfire at 8:33 p.m.; the 911 call came at 8:45 p.m.

Miller turned out to be Randolph’s handyman. Causse’s daughter, Colleen, told investigators Randolph had become the beneficiary of her mother’s will three months into the marriage, and he had taken out a $350,000 life insurance policy on her.

Who were Thomas Randolph’s six wives?

As investigators traced his past across 10 states, the same pattern kept surfacing: a marriage, a life insurance policy and, in four cases, a death.

• Kathy (married 1975). They had two children and divorced. Her next husband, Steve Thomas, told investigators Randolph had tried to recruit him to kill her.
• Becky Gault (married 1983). She died of a gunshot to the head at her Utah home in 1986, first ruled a suicide. Randolph collected a $500,000 payout, was tried for her murder and was acquitted in 1989.
• Gaynal Allmon. She says he also took out a policy on her; they divorced.
• Frances. She died after heart surgery with a doctor Randolph had picked. He collected her life insurance and sued the hospital for wrongful death.
• Leona Stapleton. She died of cancer soon after the wedding.
• Sharon Causse. Killed in their Las Vegas home on May 8, 2008.

In the Gault trial, his friend Eric Tarantino testified that Randolph had hired him to kill her before he backed out. Randolph was acquitted of murder but convicted of witness tampering, later expunged, for offering an undercover officer money to kill Tarantino.

Where is Thomas Randolph now?

In prison. He was arrested in January 2009 at his mother’s home in Utah. In June 2017, a Clark County jury convicted him of conspiracy and two counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death.

The Nevada Supreme Court later threw out that verdict, ruling the jury should not have heard evidence from the Gault case.

At his 2023 retrial, jurors convicted him again of conspiracy and two counts of murder with a deadly weapon. Judge Tierra Jones sentenced him to 60 years to life. Randolph, now 71, is held at Lovelock Correctional Center and still claims he is innocent; an appeal was denied in early September.

We’re going to become infamous together.

Thomas Randolph to Dan Slepian, in The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part

Is ‘The Widower’ worth watching?

Early reviews single out the access: the camera is in the room as detectives work the case, and Randolph talks freely for years. The main complaint is the length. The Review Geek called it “a wild true crime that deserved more time,” since 91 minutes has to hold six marriages and two trials.

It is also not the first version. In February 2021, NBC aired The Widower, a multi-part Dateline series on the same case, and Slepian has said he still talks to Randolph by phone.

The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part is streaming on Netflix. More true stories on screen: whether Primetime is based on a true story, Netflix’s Matthew Perry documentary and every new Netflix movie in October. More in Movies & TV.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Netflix, The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part (Sept. 30, 2026) and official trailer; TIME (Jake Kring-Schreifels), Sept. 28, 2026, including interview with Dan Slepian; Rotten Tomatoes (runtime and director); The Review Geek, 2026; Associated Press, via Fox affiliates, August 2023 (retrial verdict and sentence); NBC News, February 2021. Photos and video: Netflix.