Priest Geo. D. Sander, of St. Leonard’s Catholic Church, Hamburg avenue and Jefferson street, Brooklyn, New York, was known in that city as a devout Catholic priest, and he was also known in Far Hills, New Jersey, as a race horse man, by the name of “Geo. West,” who was interested in a stock farm, on which lived a woman known as “Mrs. Geo. West,” but her right name is Mrs. Mamie Kipp, who formerly belonged to Priest Sander’s church, but disappeared from Brooklyn very mysteriously, and whose whereabouts had been unknown to her family and her friends, until it was learned that she was living on this stock farm at Far Hills, N.J., and bore the fictitious name by which this priest was known.

The double life of Priest Sander began in 1901.  Then Jos.  C. Peck, racer and raiser of trotting horses, met this priest in Albany, who wore the ordinary garb of a citizen.  They met at the race track, which was not a very good recommendation to say the least of it, for the Rev. Father Sander.  Peck found that this priest was a keen judge of horses and their love for horses established a bond of friendship between them.

In Baltimore, a short time afterwards, these two men again met at the race track.  Peck told Priest Sander that he had just sold a stock farm at Millington, N.J., and contemplated buying another.  Sander told Peck that he was the owner of a fine mare named “Ethel Burns,” and that he would place her on Peck’s farm if he purchased it.  He told Peck that his mare had a track record of 2:20-1/4 and a trial record of 2:16.

Peck informed this priest that he was a bachelor.  Priest Sander proposed that they should keep house jointly and said that he would provide a housekeeper and share the expense of the establishment.  He was the guardian, he said, of a Mrs. Mamie Kipp, who had had some trouble with her husband and who wanted to get away from Brooklyn.  He informed Peck that this lady had a young son, and that he would bring both the mother and son to the farm at Far Hills, N.J.

It was obvious that the priest could not indulge in his love for fast horses, and make regular visits to the stock farm in his priestly robes, as he knew it would cause considerable comment; so this priest suggested to Peck that Mrs. Kipp be called “Mrs. Geo. West,” and that it be given out to the neighbors that she was the wife of a drummer for a large mercantile house in New York, and further stated that he could visit this woman as “George West,” and not create any comment.

The trainmen became acquainted with this priest and considered him a “good fellow,” as he was always smoking and played the part of a “drummer” in an elegant manner, and these trainmen came to know “Geo. West” as Peck’s partner in the race horse business.

The merchants about Far Hills knew this priest as the husband of “Mrs. West,” and when this priest would put in his appearance at Far Hills, the neighbors, of course, thought it was nothing more than natural that “Mrs. West’s” husband should come to see her whenever he could get an opportunity to get off of the road.