Secrets in the Night

Secrets In The Night, a heartrending and victorious story of a difficult and intensely felt life: A remarkable memoir of spirit, recovery, and family life in 1955 in a small Southern Indiana country town filled with hypocritical, Bible-thumping, and gambling people.

The story centers on ten-year-old Mary Ruth Morgan, third in a family of five children.

The father, Hunter Morgan, who had gambled with outlaw John Dillinger, is a captivating and unreasonably proud man, that would change from a loving caring father, into a ragging fierce man within seconds, and chase his family out into the night.

Their mother Sarah was an angel: kind and robust-her only limitation was her inability to leave Hunter for the sake of her safety and her children.

Mary Ruth's grandfather Preacher John instills in her to tell the truth, and better days will come. After telling the authorities of her fathers' abuse, her life becomes even more confusing when she finds herself sent to jail and a mental hospital.

During an emotional trial Hunter enters the courtroom in handcuffs, uncombed hair, and eyes dark with fear. This overwhelms Mary Ruth, and with one word, "No," the handcuffs are removed from her father's wrist and placed on hers. She is arrested for perjury and sent to a reform school.

Thirty years later after Mary Ruth appears on the Oprah Winfrey show, Mary Ruth is encouraged to write her story.