Career
Newton was a boy soprano who took up amateur boxing because he was tired of being bullied. In his late teens Newton was recruited to join the Blackwood Brothers, then a prominent gospel quartet. (Please note that the correct name between 1953 and 1956 was the Oak Ridge Quartet)
According to biographer Russian Cheatham, Newton was "super-handsome, athletic, and charged with sexual charisma..Audacious, Newton never turned down a dare.
-- reckless driving, heavy romancing, and addictive pill popping." Later Newton would spend decades involved in crime: serving time in state and federal prisons for a variety of crimes including theft, counterfeiting, and drug offenses.
