'The Widower' Is a Shocking True Story That's Now Streaming on Peacock
Published Feb. 19 2021, 5:08 p.m. ET
There's something about true crime documentary series that get people all excited. I don't know what it is about murderers and serial killers that get people so worked up, but for whatever reason, there are tons of folks out there who get very, very excited at the prospect of watching hours of programming exposing gnarly crimes. And The Widower is a new docu-series that's got true crime fans hooked. Some of the details in the program are so harrowing, though, people can't believe it's a true story.
Unfortunately, yes, 'The Widower' is indeed a true story: it actually happened.
The producers of Dateline are tackling the case of Thomas Randolph, who's been married a whopping six times. No, this isn't the tale of a hapless individual who just can't find love, or has finicky "deal breakers" in relationships — four of Randolph's six wives all died in very shady, shady ways.
What's insane about The Widower is that this was a 13-year endeavor by Dateline producer Dan Slepian.
"Over the course of 10 years, Slepian travels across the country, interviewing and documenting the alleged killer as he tantalizes law enforcement, the legal team and even the Dateline cameras in a twisted game of cat and mouse...[Dan receives] unprecedented access to Randolph, detectives, prosecutors and the defense team, as well as gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial," states an NBC press release.
Thomas Randolph is at the center of 'The Widower,' and people want to know if he's transitioning into a woman now.
Although there are some people who believe Thomas Randolph is undergoing treatments to transition into a woman, he hasn't gone on the record stating that this is the case nor is there any written evidence confirming whether or not this is true. It just appears that there are viewers who mistook Randolph's physical appearance as someone who is in the middle of a gender transition.
The man has become somewhat of an enigma, and Slepian was intrigued by him: "It’s such a fascinating look into the mind of a guy like this," Slepian said, as per The New York Post, "He was sitting in a jail cell three weeks after his arrest and said, ‘It’s not a big deal. I’d be cheated if they didn’t charge me with the death penalty.’"
The Dateline producer continued, "He was talking in jail about how he’d like to have oral sex with the judge. He’s a perplexing, intriguing murder suspect. You can’t take your eyes off of him. He flirts with the camera — it’s been like a three-decade cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement and with our cameras."
The Widower has distilled over 300 hours of footage and tons of research into Randolph's personal life and history, specifically the circumstances surrounding the deaths of four of his six wives.
Randolph's most recent wife, Sharon, was allegedly shot and killed by a co-worker of Randolph's, handyman Michael Miller.
The story goes that Miller broke into Randolph's house with the intention to kill him and his wife. Randolph called police to tell them that he shot and killed Miller after he broke into his home and slayed his wife, but the detectives looking into the case looked at Randolph's rap sheet. The man had three previous spouses who died in iffy circumstances... so they decided to look into his case further.
After her death, Randolph benefited from a $360,000 life insurance policy payout he'd taken out on Sharon.
In his life, he'd been convicted of murder on two separate occasions and was even given the death penalty, however, his 2017 murder conviction was overturned and he's waiting to go on trial for it again.
The Widower is a three-part series that debuted on NBC on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 10 p.m. EST. The first part is an hour long, and then parts two and three are two-hours long a piece, and debut at 9 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 21 respectively. Will you be checking it out?