Books by Michael Newton

In 1946, years before the phrase "serial murder" was coined, a masked killer terrorized the town of Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border. Striking five times within a ten-week period, always at night, the prowler claimed six lives and left three other victims wounded. Survivors told police that their assailant was a man, but could supply little else. A local newspaper dubbed him the Phantom Killer, and it stuck. Other reporters called the faceless predator the "Moonlight Murderer," though the lunar cycle had nothing to do with the crimes. Texarkana's phantom was not America's first serial slayer; he certainly was not the worst, either in body count or sheer brutality. But he has left a crimson mark on history as one of those who got away. Like the elusive Axeman of New Orleans, Cleveland's Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, and San Francisco's Zodiac Killer, the Phantom Killer left a haunting mystery behind. This is the definitive story of that mystery.

A global survey of unknown creatures reported by thousands of eyewitnesses-creatures that have either been verified, refuted, or are still being examined by scientific researchers.

'The ghost is the most enduring figure in supernatural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible... He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of the earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients' - Dorothy ScarboroughThis new selection of ghost stories, by Michael Newton, brings together the best of the genre. From Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Old Nurse's Story' through to Edith Wharton's 'Afterword', this collection covers all of the most terrifying tales of the genre. With a thoughtful introduction, and helpful notes, Newton places the stories contextually within the genre and elucidates the changing nature of the ghost story and how we interpret it.

This examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Letters of Paul finds that, in both these bodies of literature, religious self-understanding is expressed in terms of the concept of purity so important to primitive religion and earlier Judaism. Dr Newton contradicts the view held by most scholars that the traditional Jewish attitude to purity had no place in Christianity.