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Send In The Clowns
Jan Pottker and husband Andrew Fishel have waged a seven-year court battle against Kenneth Feld, head of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus empire.
(Lucian Perkins - The Washington Post)
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It's not clear how frequently the so-called Pottker memos were produced, because many documents in the suit have been placed under seal. They're undated and unsigned, though most were likely written by Eringer. Some were spare, others detailed and chatty.
"Pottker is driving to New York City this weekend with her husband and two daughters," one says. "She has an appointment with a top NYC hairdresser to highlight her hair (she had to book this appointment six weeks in advance -- and she is very excited.)"
Another: "Pottger [sic] has found several black boys from a housing project who used to perform for Ringling and who sustained injuries during their employment. 'They make you work when you're sick,' she quotes one, 'for bad pay.' "
Another: "Pottker continues her contact with [Sen.] Howard Metzenbaum's office. She says that a Metzenbaum staffer phoned a staffer in Senator Christopher Dodd's office to discuss including the circus in child labor hearings."
One of the later memos reports: "Pottker is surprised by the level of anger from those who appeared in her Washington guide book. . . . She continues to talk from time to time about a book on Ringling Brothers."
Barnumized
Eringer, 51, is one of the more colorful, yet opaque, characters in this tale. He has lived for periods in Monaco, London and Washington. He has written a dozen books, many of them slim volumes from obscure publishing houses. Recent titles suggest a focus on madness and spying (e.g., "Spookeroonie" and "Granny's Lost Her Marbles"). George blurbed Eringer's 2000 novel, "Parallel Truths," saying, "No one writes a funnier novel about modern day spying. . . . It is clear that he understands espionage."
Pottker's lawsuit, which also lists Eringer as a defendant, implies that he is an ex-CIA employee. He declined to answer that question in an e-mail exchange from London, where he now lives. "I am a writer," Eringer told The Post.
Meanwhile he also runs a bar called Bedlam, which offers free dessert to customers who can prove they're insane or have spent time in an asylum. It also boasts of having a piece of Vincent van Gogh's severed ear on display.
Eringer denies wrongdoing in the Pottker operation and has joined Feld in seeking to have the suit dismissed. "It is just not true to say we sabotaged her career," he says.
He also once put this statement on his bar's Web site:
"Some lady has complained that she was fooled, that she was fooled for eight years, and that I personally sucked her brain of all its innermost secrets. Go figure. . . . The full story of how this lady Barnumized herself will one day be told."
An Unexpected Tip
Jan Pottker probably wouldn't have discovered any of this if not for a disgruntled circus executive named Charles Smith. As Feld Entertainment's chief financial officer, he was privy to payments made to George, Eringer and various private eyes whom Feld allegedly dispatched to infiltrate animal protection groups, including the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California and PETA, based in Norfolk.
