Netflix documentary renews interest in Utah case involving Thomas Randolph

SALT LAKE CITY — A new Netflix documentary is drawing national attention to Thomas Randolph, a man known as "The Widower." He was married six times.

Some of his wives died under suspicious circumstances.

One of those cases centered on the death of Randolph's second wife, Beckie Rae Gault Randolph, in Clearfield.

Beckie Randolph was found dead inside the couple's Davis County home on Nov. 7, 1986. Thomas Randolph said she had died by suicide.

After a two-year investigation, prosecutors charged him with her murder, alleging he killed her and staged the scene to collect a $250,000 life insurance policy.

The case went to trial in 1989.

According to the KSL news report from the proceedings, "prosecutors depict Randolph as conniving, manipulative and obsessed with plotting ways to murder his wife and make it look like an accident."

At one point, a record player was brought out so the courtroom could listen to a Rod Stewart song prosecutors say was one of Randolph's favorites.

"The lyric says, 'or should I act quite cold and deliberate, or maybe blow out her brains with a bullet? They'll think suicide. They won't know who done it. I'm going to kill my wife.'"

They presented testimony from Randolph's former friend, Eric Tarantino. Tarantino told jurors he and Randolph had discussed ways to kill Beckie Randolph and make her death appear accidental.

"It's a lie," Randolph said at the time. "That never happened."

Randolph took the stand in his own defense, describing his wife as troubled, drug-dependent and depressed.

According to a KSL report, witnesses testified Becky Randolph attempted suicide before her death. They said a crime expert from Weber State said he found no evidence indicating there was a murder.

After deliberating, a Davis County jury found Randolph not guilty.

Becky Randolph's family expressed outrage following the verdict.

"I think it's very unfair and unjust," Beckie's mom, Martha Degraw, told KSL. "He's guilty and he's just going to kill somebody's else daughter so just beware."

Randolph was later convicted of attempting to hire a hitman to kill Tarantino, the witness whose testimony had helped investigators build the case against him.

He later married three more times. Two of his wives were said to have died from illness.

Authorities eventually arrested Randolph in Utah following the 2008 death of his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, in Nevada. Prosecutors alleged he orchestrated a scheme in which a hired gunman, Michael James Miller, killed his wife as part of a plot to collect insurance money.

Jurors in that case heard evidence related to the death of Beckie Randolph, including testimony from Tarantino. Randolph was found guilty of killing Causse and Miller. But the conviction was overturned. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Beckie Randolph's case should not have been mentioned in the trial.

Randolph was tried again in 2023 and was sentenced to 60 years to life. He is now serving time in a Nevada prison.

"The Widower: Till Death Do Us Part," now streaming on Netflix, details the circumstances surrounding each wife's death and Randolph's relationship with each woman.

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