James Randall

James Michael Randall (born August 28, 1954) is an American criminal whose convictions included multiple rapes, a kidnapping, and the murder of two women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida in the 1990s. Randall is an inmate in the Jefferson Correctional Institute serving out two life sentences.

1980s prosecutions Randall was a chief suspect in the 1984 death of Boston resident Holly Jean Cote, whose death by strangulation was never solved. Cote was a friend of Randall's then-wife, Linda Randall. Cote was last seen alive in the area of Gardner, Massachusetts on March 4, 1984. Her body was found in early May in a marsh near Birch Hill Dam in Royalston, Massachusetts. His suspected involvement in Cote's death is based on statements Randall made to his then-wife and to mental health workers during interactions he had with psychiatric services in late 1984, and on the fact that Cote's body was recovered in a fishing area Randall was known to frequent. Randall was never charged with an offense relating to Cote's death but evidence relating to the investigation was raised in the subsequent Evans/Pugh murder trial.

In the late 1980s a Massachusetts court convicted James Randall of an incident of sexual battery of Linda Randall, which occurred on July 18, 1986. He was sentenced to five to seven years imprisonment for these offenses and spent time in a Massachusetts prison until his release in 1992. After his release Randall moved to Florida and got a job as a window installer.

Police investigations revealed that Randall had a history of engaging in consensual erotic asphyxiation with his sexual partners, along with allegations of non-consensual violent attacks on his then-girlfriend Terry-Jo Howard involving in part attempts to choke her. He was also sentenced to a concurrent sentence of five years on a charge of evading police.

The St Petersburg Times reported that when the imprisoned Randall was informed by detectives he would be charged with the murders of Cynthia Pugh and Wendy Evans, he replied, "Is that all?"

Although investigations are continuing, no charges were laid against Randall relating to other deaths.