Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Tom Randolph - the Black Widower - Discussion of Investigation Discovery Series (Bonus)

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

With the release of the 3 part documentary on Thomas Randolph, the Black Widower, we decided to drop a bonus episode where we tall you what we think of it after watching it, and after creating a 4 part series on his story recently.We. Have. Opinions.Let us know what YOU thought of the ID series after listening to ours!Tom Randolph the Black Widower - Part 1 - The Murder of Sharon Randolph: https://sinspod.co/episode_31Tom Randolph The Black Widower - Part 2 - Wives of the Black Widower: https://sinspod.co/episode_32Tom Randolph The Black Widower - Part 3 - The Murder of Beckie Gault: https://sinspod.co/episode_33Tom Randolph The Black Widower - Part 4 - The Trial: https://sinspod.co/episode_34Domestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag!Apple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! Hello, everybody. We are doing a free swing shift episode here in honor of Investigation Discovery releasing their three-part, it was three parts, right? Yeah. Three-part series on Tom Randolph. The Black Widower. The Six Wives of Tom Randolph.

Yes. We did a four-part series on Tom Randolph because he was, his case came to an end in April just three months ago here in Las Vegas and we wanted to cover that whole story and it's kind of cool that we weren't the only ones who had that idea. Investigation Discovery also had that idea. Yeah, so we were, well, we were investigating, researching, recording, blah, blah, blah.

They were as well. They were as well. They were getting ready for theirs. We didn't know about it, though. No. When it was announced, we were like, whoa. And we have some things to say. So we have watched it and we have opinions.

We have notes. You know what we're doing right now? What? We're channeling I Think Not. We kind of are. We are kind of channeling I Think Not. Ellen and Joey. Do you think they're listening? They might be. I like to think they're listening. I'd like to think they are. We should reach out to them

and tell them to listen. Okay. Anyway. There will be way fewer show tunes. Not as many show tunes as Ellen and Joey. Yeah. That's for everyone's protection. Yes.

You don't want to hear that. Trust me. So, yeah, it was a three-parter, three episodes. And what I did when we were watching it was I kind of broke it up into a few different like we were actually taking notes while we were watching it so nerdy because i was like well i you know did they do a better job than us because they have a much bigger budget yeah and by a bigger budget i mean you know a budget so we don't have one of those but um they have a big budget yeah and like And like, and you know. Also, obviously Iron Stomach, because they sat down and interviewed Tom Randolph. And you, I mean, I don't know the, I shouldn't say you, there's, you couldn't pay me to.

I don't know what the dollar amount is to get me to sit down and have a conversation with that man. It's unclear to me. I mean, I guess definitely some of it was new. And we'll get into how they structured it but um it's unclear to me how much of the tom randolph interview stuff was new but it's very possible it was new because we listened to a lot too much tom randolph interview and the the stuff that he said in the investigation discovery was different it was similar similar enough yeah but it was like story hasn't changed yes story right yeah his obviously

his story hasn't really changed but there was some new stuff that he said yeah and he's obviously Just full of it. Yeah. He's just a liar. And he loves to talk about his sexual prowess. That's all we're going to say about that. Okay. Oh, so gross. So the way they chose to structure it is, it was almost, I found it really weird. Okay. Say more. They, they, it was almost like his daughter,

Krista, was telling the story. Yes. Beginning to end. Yes. For all three episodes. Yes. Which I found really weird.

Yeah. She was like the narrator. So number one, it's just Krista. It's not Justice, his son. Yes. From the first marriage.

Yes. They are from his first marriage. Yes. And, but his first marriage. Yes. But that was very interesting. It was interesting to hear the perspective of his daughter, who was obviously in his corner because, you know, that's her dad and she has a very skewed view and couldn't conceive of a world where he was a sociopathic serial killer, basically. Killing multiple people. But her arc throughout the episodes was very clear, too. Yeah.

She learned a lot. She did. Her eyes were opened. Yeah, that's true. So what I did was I broke it up into four different sections. The sections were new things we're learning, like stuff they were able to research that we didn't know stuff we think is wrong stuff we got wrong i don't think we wrote anything under

stuff we got wrong no maybe one thing maybe one thing okay and uh generally interesting things ah yes because there were many generally interesting things. Yeah. So, okay, so the first episode. So the other thing was when we told the story, we told it in such a way that we broke it up into, like, the first episode was about the most recent murder of Sharon, right? Sharon and Mike, yep. And the case was Sharon and Mike. And so we kind of told that pretty thoroughly but we left we like held some of it back we yeah we got to the part where the detectives realized that tom had a history yes they started to realize he was sketchy and they were like and

the prosecutors were like we're never going to get a conviction on this guy you have to do more and they were like okay we're gonna going to get a conviction on this guy. You have to do more. And they were like, okay, we're going to do research. Then a second episode was like... Every Wife But Becky. Every Wife But Becky. Thank you. So his first, third, fourth, and fifth wives. Yeah.

And then the third episode was Becky. Was Becky's story. And I think it was important to tell his first wife's story first to get the context to establish that he was kind of a sociopath and an abuser and a drug dealer and other bad words. And so I really like the way. And then the third, fourth episode was about the. Sharon and Mike's trial. Sharon and Mike's we, and then the, the third, the fourth episode was about the Sharon, Sharon and Mike's trial, Sharon and Mike's trial, and then the appeal and then the second trial.

Yeah. So I am biased, but I like that structure. Yeah. I don't know who came up with that structure, but I like that structure. Yeah. There.

Yeah. I like that too. I think they just told, they started, they did the same thing. They started with Sharon and then they went basically through his life's life

wife chronologically and then came back to the trial so they kind of had the same idea as us with that arc but but I feel like they didn't hold anything back no it was very strange.

It wasn't like, they could have just made one movie, because they didn't really do like a cliffhanger-y thing between the two episodes, or... No episode really stood on its own, it just kind of bled into the next one. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. I mean, it was...

three hours? Yeah. And the other thing, okay, so things that were generally interesting, like, oh, well, actually, let's go back to the new items we're learning. Like, they talked about Eric Tarantino in the first

episode. Yeah. And they really leaned into... Which was the, like, that's the guy that he hired to kill Becky. His second wife. His second wife. Yeah. Um, why are you telling that so early yeah like you're giving away like that's i don't think that's a good story it also gets like muddy because there are so many characters and it's like showing this guy they're showing this wife they're talking you know it was i wouldn't say they were jumping around but like they did carry i would say they were jumping around carry tarantino through

the whole story even though i mean i guess he played a big role in the middle and tarantino really were like the narrators yeah were the narrators with tom plenty of tom yeah too much tom and you know what investigating investigation discovery did that we would never do i mean not with a case like this where the where the criminal's been convicted technically twice, but once and then appeal. And then again, we made it clear that he was guilty. But investigation discovery seemed to kind of go with, was this a coincidence? Maybe. They actually started with that.

Was it bad luck? Are we exaggerating? Are we reading too much into this like they kind of tried who was it in the first episode that they were talking to interviewing and he was like they had they had already made up their minds that he was guilty before they even charged him oh yeah i don't remember who said that but also like bro maybe his prosecutors do prosecutors think you're guilty before the thing starts yeah like that's their job they have to believe you're guilty because they're prosecuting i think it was one of his attorneys but yeah yeah and we did get some insight into the attorneys from the second trial that we didn't have before in the third episode and uh the defense attorneys um i guess we talk about them um

they also claimed that mike in the first episode was semi-homeless but that was not our understanding at all no i mean he like i believe i understood that he lived with his his uncle yeah i don uncle. His aunt and uncle. Yeah. Yeah, I don't. Which is not semi-homeless. Yeah, and I don't think there was any, again, there's no need to describe him as that, is it? Yeah, as a semi-homeless man, no. Yeah. And there was a lot of talk about Mike and how he was down on his luck. Yeah.

And I did not like that. I didn't like it either. I mean, Mike did kill Sharon. Yes, absolutely. I mean, Mike did kill Sharon. Yes, absolutely. I mean, Tom set it up. Yeah, he was manipulated into it. Yeah, he basically hired him as a hitman with no intent of ever paying him to do the work. He groomed him to be a hitman.

And then killed him. And he felt like he tied a little bow on that one. He was just going to go on with his life. No, sorry, Tom. Yep. And we also noticed that 20% into episode number one, they revealed that he had six wives and four of them were dead. Yeah.

And what we thought that that was kind of like the big, the thing we kind of held back at the end of our first episode. We thought that was like the. Yeah. We thought that made it more interesting but i mean i don't know it's like i don't know i even have in my notes that they're jumping back and forth to begin to the beginning of the story and the end of the story yeah they really were and they had like some of her friends also as interviews yeah it was kind of all over the place yeah um not to say that it wasn't good and those interviews weren't compelling but i mean we studied this case we worked hard on it we wrote we wrote episodes and we recorded episodes on it so we knew it really well and i did wonder how maybe

how does it how did it go how would it be for someone who wasn't as familiar with the case i'd be curious if it was confusing as to who deirdre is or who yeah you know these people are but when people showed up we were like oh look it's deirdre yeah yeah exactly um um they also i mean i already mentioned how gross tom is um gross being an understatement but they i really felt investigation discovery worked too hard to try and make him seem cool yeah they're like playing you know playing i have a note in here it's like playing upbeat rock and roll music yeah yeah letting him brag about his past relationships like how many girlfriends he has like his sexual exploits so immature like i don't think men these days behave that way but he had to brag about all of that stuff,

which is just, it's offensive. It's disgusting. He claimed that he was a drummer and all this bravado. I feel like he said sex, drugs, and rock and roll a thousand times in that documentary. I'm just a rock and roll guy. Yeah, grow up. And then he said that about Sharon, too. Oh, she went to Woodstock how cool is that man

yeah like oh god why would i hurt her she went to woodstock yeah okay because you're a sociopath i don't know why you tell me you're the sociopath um i almost i felt i felt sad for his first wife because she didn't want her face shown in the documentary. She participated and she did participate, but she didn't want her face shown. I hope she's not getting harassed because she definitely doesn't deserve it. But they didn't include anything in the documentary like we had included about some of the abuse she endured that story we told about how he threw them the oatmeal that was like a big part of the story and they never mentioned the oatmeal and they never mentioned how she had to relocate to washington

state to get away from him yep even though they shared the two kids yeah um they never talked about how she was friends with becky his wife, and how they were keeping in touch and how she was very worried for Becky. It was almost like they told it in a kind of a pro-Tom. Like they framed it in a pro-Tom-ish way. Like, when that second episode started and they had that legal analyst, Beth Carrison, and she was just saying, like, he was pre-law and he was so smart. Beth, I mean, like, she was just talking about, like, they had the attorney saying, like, how he was so smart. And they were talking about how he had an alibi for when Becky was killed, but he really

didn't. I know. I thought Beth... I mean, he had an alibi, but it was a terrible alibi that didn't hold up at all. Yeah. If you thought about it for more than one second, it was... And it was an insane miscarriage of justice that he was able to fool the jury into getting an acquittal. Yeah. I don't think... We talked about that a little bit, I believe that he testified in his own defense, but he was somehow, you know, he was afraid that he wasn't going to get a fair trial in Utah because

he was, you know, selling drugs and he had this like rock and roll lifestyle, blah, blah, blah, was cheating on all his wives, blah, blah, blah. And so he thought he wasn't getting a fair trial, but you know, the man takes a stand and he says, oh yeah, I was having an argument with Becky. I told her that I was like, that she should just go ahead and, you know the man takes a stand and he says oh yeah i was having an argument with becky i told her that i was like that she should just go ahead and you know kill herself and then i left and um went to a bar and got drunk and then got pulled over for a dui but i didn't kill her because i'm obviously i was busy getting drunk and going to my mom's house and the mom vouched for him and then he got pulled over you could tell he was building an alibi because he was like oh i went to a bar and 40 people saw me at that bar so i definitely didn't kill her yeah i okay it's a tragedy that and she was like

on a waterbed so yeah she was killed on a waterbed and the waterbed heater was turned off so the waterbed was very cold right so uh the um it was difficult to determine exactly when she had died her time of death couldn't be determined within yeah you know plus or minus 24 hours so his alibi didn't at all cover the full period where she could have been killed it's just nuts that they um would have accepted his testimony as being true yeah i will say in episode two one really interesting thing we learned was from uh gaina and how she had the diamonds removed from her engagement and wedding rings she had them removed and had them replaced with cubic zirconias and then

gave the rings back to him and then pawned the real diamonds. I was like, you go gain it. That was amazing. I was so happy for her. She was like, I thought that was fair. You know,

we, when we told the story, we told about how gain a said that he was cleaning the gun and the gun went off and she knew that he was trying to kill her and make it look like an accident. But what we never heard before was Tom, this is how the, probably like you said,

these are new interviews. Tom claimed that he purposely was shooting into some, what, two by sixes or something. Like he was purposely, he wasn't cleaning the gun. He was purposely firing it in the house near her. What is that?

That is just the most reckless thing I've ever heard. You think that exonerates you because you were, oh, no, I didn't actually go off. I was purposely shooting it. Yeah. It's good that she got out.

It's really good. Yeah. She was lucky. Um, oh, this was a part, I made a note about this cause you pointed this out. There was a weird part where his mom,

so his Francis was his fourth fourth wife so after gana and they broke up um francis was her fifth wife sorry why francis um was the woman who had the heart condition and then had surgery and then mysteriously passed away alone in the hotel in the hospital room after yeah when they were alone together yeah even though she was doing well somehow something happened um that his mom he was he's just saying like you know how he's so he was so in love with her and how she was so good for him and blah blah blah and then his mom said that he could either be a lawyer or be in love and get married to francis and he chose to marry francis because he was so in love and get married to Francis. And he chose to marry Francis because he was so in love. On what planet are those the two choices?

You can either be a lawyer or be married. Well, I mean, no lawyers are married. So that's really true. I guess. That's why no lawyers are married. Because they have to choose. Do they want to go to law school? It's insane.

My God. Yeah. it's insane my god um yeah and he the i guess it was also strange that they said that um his i guess it was his defense attorneys claimed that the or the prosecution claimed that the wives didn't know about these insurance policies the life insurance policies he had taken out on them which i think is very strange that is strange i don't know why they would claim that that seems a little weird i don't know how true that is for the fact that the defense attorneys were like yeah this all this seems like appropriate business yeah they were they were like that like he's taking out life insurance policies on them but not on himself for their benefit if he were to die at least we have not heard one shred of evidence that that

at least he took out policies on himself and them in case one of them that is what a husband and wife do yeah you'd be like or two yeah a married couple do that's a normal thing and we also found out that he took out uh i don't know if he took it out or he tried to take it out on um his girlfriend the one that he was with while Lizzie. Who gets a life insurance policy on their girlfriend? I mean... That's a bad sign. That's a red flag. That's the reddest flag I've ever seen. Am I the asshole read out on two hot takes or something? Somebody's going to write in that on Reddit about, i in the

asshole for taking out a life insurance policy on my girlfriend my girlfriend i've been dating for two months yes you are you are that's a red flag um they there were so much that we included about tom's relationship with eric tarantino because that was so key in understanding how tom was able to groom mike to be a hitman and they didn't talk about any of that sensational stuff i almost felt bad that we included it because it does feel sensational but i mean eric said that he like tom beat him yeah severely like like eric says so many times in the investigation discovery that he was afraid of Tom.

He was afraid for his life. Well, we included it because it's important that you understand that Eric Tarantino didn't just go along with it. He was terrified that Tom was going to kill him. Yeah. And he was only 19. I know. That was something that i don't think really

registered with me when we did it that he was that young and yeah but they didn't talk about tom beating him they of all the stuff they included they didn't include that and they also didn't include the weird fact that he used to sing that song that rod stewart song about murdering her it maybe they were like this is too much They did. Eric did talk about how he was afraid of Tom. But in the documentary, it's like, you don't know why. Yeah. Why are you so afraid of him? Yeah, that's true.

And that should have been explained. One of the reasons why I was looking forward to watching the investigation discovery documentary was because tom's third wife leona or lee as he called her there's nothing out there about her and i found some information they found out very little a couple more pictures of her yeah and the type of cancer that she passed away from but he had nothing good to say about her. No, he said some weird, bizarre things about her. But he says weird things about all his wives. Yeah.

Things that if, I think, if your spouse said about you, you would be offended. Yeah, you do. Even though the spouse is pretending to think that that's complimentary, it's actually deeply offensive. Yeah. So it's just a twisted mess to hear him talk about any of his wives yeah um it's also really there was so much um direct quotes from his mom

where his mom um a lot of interviews with his mom too yeah where she she really vouched for him i mean we knew that she vouched hard for him but I mean, we knew that... She vouched hard for him. But like... I was his alibi. There's no way he could have done this. Yeah. Frances told me she wanted to have a lot of insurance, and she wanted Tom to raise her daughter. Like... Really?

I mean, maybe. But I don't... Okay. Whatever you say. I don't know. In all the research we did, she seemed quite the enabler. Yeah. Well, I like did francis really do that i mean come on um but it was cool that they put such a spotlight on eric tarantino as the hero as he was like the star witness in the trial i mean i noticed that he's even wearing like a superman shirt oh i didn't notice that yes in the interviews with him he's wearing a superman shirt which i didn't notice that yes in the interviews with him he's wearing a superman shirt which is kind of cool oh that's funny i didn't know he also was drinking

coffee out of a mug and the mug is tilted but i know the mug says get shit done or something to that effect like it's like that is fine they like they made they they tried too hard to make Tom look cool, in my opinion, but Eric Tarantino also looked really cool. Yeah. And, yeah. I'm just so glad Tom's in jail. I know. There were some really moving interviews with Mike Miller's brother and sister that we did not have, obviously, access to when we we did ours but i would have liked to have included because you know mike had a family i mean mike did kill sharon but mike was murdered and his

death did affect his brother and sister deeply and they were you know on the like they were they wanted justice as well they wanted tom to be convicted for the murder of their brother. So there were some, like I said, great interviews with them. Yep. And they had an interview with one of the jurors and that was really insightful. That was really interesting.

Yeah. We never saw that. That was something they got. Yeah. Which I thought was, well, it was so good. That really added so much to the story.

Yep. So that's where their big budget came in. At least they got interviews with some of these people. And Dean O'Kelly. They didn't really talk about Dean O'Kelly. He was like the

star of our podcast. I know. And he was the star of the case, really. He was the one that stuck with it for 10 years him and his his partner yeah for for a decade more than a decade 15 years yep and they chased down everything and the only time he appeared was in the third episode as the final witness in the second trial right yep yep or i mean they showed him a little bit in the third episode as the final witness in the second trial right yep yep or i mean they showed him a little bit in the uh in the walkthrough video which they didn't really show very much of yeah but you can't i mean if you're if you're trying to build some sort of

tension and you show that whole video it you can't no there's no tension there because it's incredibly obvious that he is entirely making stuff up. And you can also tell that he is high as a kite. Oh, yeah. We did notice that. And I did wonder if he had done that on purpose, like to have some kind of plausible deniability in the end or whatever. Possibly. I don't, because I don't know. I wish he just,

I mean, I guess like it's fine. He made his own mistakes, but you know, it gave like a reason for people to say, well, you know, of course he didn't get it all right.

He was, he was medicated. Yeah. So that was frustrating. I made a note of one of my, one of the parts that I found the most compelling

in the direct, the cross-examination of Dino Kelly by Tom's defense attorney. So the defense attorney, if you all remember that when Tom shot Mike, Mike wasn't wearing the ski mask. We know that because there were no holes in the ski mask, no blood on it. It was just in the corner of the garage. So the prosecution's theory was Mike's, the plan was for Mike to kill Sharon, Tom to come home, Mike to leave, and Tom to call the cops, right? I think that was the prosecution's theory. So, of course, after Sharon was dead, the prosecution's theory, Mike takes off the mask so he can have a conversation with Tom. He doesn't have to hide his face anymore. So the defense attorney's like, hey, well, if the plan was for Mike to kill Sharon, why would he wear a mask at all? There's no need to hide who he is. Sharon's never going to testify against him. And Dino Kelly said, well, if you're going to shoot someone that knows you, you wouldn't want them to see your face when you do it.

And I was like, oh, yeah, that explains why Mike was wearing a ski mask at all. Because I do kind of agree with the defense. Well, you know, why would he be hiding his identity? For what? For who? kind of agree with the defense well you know why would he be hiding his identity for what for who it doesn't it's in contrast to your theory but do you know kelly's saying like actually he didn't want sharon to know it was him because he was friends with her he had had dinner at her house he had done work around her house it's actually really kind of scary and and sad to think about yep um yeah i don't know is there anything else here not really that's what we thought of the uh it was definitely an enjoyable um insightful yeah it wasn't we didn't enjoy it i'm sorry

not enjoyable um It was interesting. Interesting. Like we said, there was a lot of, not a lot, but some good bits of testimony and statements from people that we knew were involved in the case that we had never heard before. Mike's uncle testified that he knew that something was up with that relationship with Tom because, know, Mike's saying he's doing work for Tom, but he wasn't actually getting any work. He wasn't making any money. He was just like hanging out with him. So his uncle knew there was something off there.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's just like a lot of good little bits like that that really added to the story and made the people, the emotions of the people really come through, their experience for some of them. But we do recommend you watch it after you listen to our podcast. I was going to say, if you only listen to one multi-part series about Tom Randolph this year, it should be our podcast. Yes.

But if you want a little more which i can't imagine you would want you should not want that but if you do yeah check out the investigation discovery you know it does you can see their faces you can you know there's so many pictures of of his wives and like i said some really good information from from Eric Tarantino and Mike's family that we weren't able to share when we did the recording. But this show is hot. I saw a headline on the Huffington Post just today, July 22nd, that it's the number one show on Max. I don't know if that's true. Number one, I did not not look but i think that's

what the headline said that is insane i don't know if it's like number one true crime or if it's just number one all together but it is yes this startling docu-series is a top is a top show excuse me i want to get it right is a top show it's by caroline bologna on what i hope that people will see the show and want more and they will google it and they will find our four-part series yes that is that is my hope for us because we tried to put the victims first and tried to take some of the focus off of tom because like screw tom man yeah it's hard to because he is a narcissistic sociopath and he loves to talk about himself he really

does he'll talk to you all day about how great he is oh my god so offensive unbelievable well thanks for hanging in with us as we did this kind of breakdown of the show and our feelings about it if you watched, please comment on our social media.

You can always send us an email at podcast at sinsandsurvivors.com. And maybe we'll share some of your thoughts in another bonus episode. Cool. Yeah. Do you want to say the thing? Sure. Thanks as always for listening. And remember what happens here happens everywhere.

Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast,

is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, SinsAndSurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.