Was Oakland’s Ghost Ship Fire A Cult Sacrifice?

The Oakland Ghost Ship fire is illustrative of America’s decay and cultural rot. A once-thriving city on San Francisco Bay is today reduced to an industrial graveyard. Globalism was the dagger that killed American industry. Like locusts, producers moved offshore to China and the Far East in a quest for cheap labor, leaving America’s post-Boomer generations in the lurch. Then China’s new elite came to America – and the San Francisco Bay area in particular – to buy up the skeletal remains of American industry and manufacturing for pennies on the dollar.

Foreign investors are not landlords, not in the traditional American sense. There’s no interest in community revitalization, alcohol impact zones, building codes or permits. To them, the land represents an investment and a foreign visa. For the city, it represents property-tax revenue. But what about the residents, the unemployed, the un-housed masses?

While wages stagnate for average, middle-class workers, the price of housing in the Bay Area continues to climb – driven in part by foreign investors and hot-money tech sector. It costs about $2,500 a month conservatively for a studio apartment in the Bay Area. Landlords require income equivalent to three times the rent. Therefore, one must have a salary of about $75,000 a year to get by and live in a slum. Though wages are a little higher in the region, you’ll still have to have a management-level position to garner that level of salary. It’s a small wonder that San Francisco has the highest homeless population in the nation, second only to New York City. But high rents aren’t the only issue. Inflation is everywhere. Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported restaurant “prices have risen, on average, 26 percent since 2010 and 52 percent since 2005 — up 7.5 percent in the last year alone.”

So it’s little wonder that struggling “artists” would look for alternatives – yes, perhaps even RVs wedged into the first floor of a warehouse or odd nooks, if the space was edgy, funky and home to house/techno parties — and far from the gang-infested areas of the city. And they might even do drugs, attend raves or dabble in the dark side of occultism or mysticism to escape the despair of their ever increasingly shitty lives.

The following Ghost Ship residence sum up the economic situation for us. By the way, great hair, makeup and outfits, ladies — especially considering you just escaped a fire. Glad you had a the wherewithal to grab your jackets as you fled the burning building.

Enter one Derick Ion Almena landlord and leader of the Ghost Ship “artists’ collective” – or rather, artist’s cult. Almena rented the old warehouse from owner Chor N. Ng, who would cruise by the old site in her white Mercedes once a month to pick up her rent check. She only did the minimum necessary to keep her rent stream flowing.

Almena converted the second floor of the abandoned warehouse into housing for himself, his wife and three children and, on the first floor, illegally sublet residential space to as many as 20 others who lived in recreational vehicles (RVs) and makeshift rooms. Ng (aka “no good”) feigns ignorance that anyone was living in the warehouse.

In addition to renters, Almena filled the warehouse with piles upon piles of junkyard debris, predominantly made of old dried wood. To generate even more revenue, Almena would occasionally host raves, orgies or house parities for which there would be a cover charge at the door.

Much of the human debris Almena collected had either an occult or Hindu quality to it. There were alters to Shiva the destroyer, horned devils and mystical-looking whatnots everywhere. With finishing touches of bizarre graffiti on its exterior, Almena christened the monstrosity the “Ghost Ship.” [Must-see aerial view via Google Maps.]

Upon first glance of the Ghost Ship and/or Almena, one might simply say, “Hmm. Okay. The guy’s just a gypsy type, a little out there. Nothing too menacing.” But glance the Ghost Ship’s website and one soon realizes this wasn’t an “artists’ collective.” It was more like a cult.

If Almena’s Ghost Ship was a cult, is it possible the fire was a sacrifice? The following former tenant — who moved out long before the fire — talks of “escaping” the Ghost Ship as though she speaking of an occult.

The tabloidish Daily Mail reports that tenants have told tales of mind control, threats of violence and “bloody rituals” and describe Almena as “a cult leader.” Tenants accuse him of using “threats of violence to get his way, and being able to flip from charming to threatening in a heartbeat.”

In a document seen by DailyMail.com in which Mack logged her grievances as a tenant at the time, she records a complaint about a fellow tenant called Lisa – a woman she says was close to Almena – saying she carried out ‘blood rituals’ in the warehouse.

‘Lisa is complaining about the TV but I’m not coming to you complaining when she is dripping blood in the sitting room after coming back from one of her rituals?’ …

Blood rituals and animal sacrifice can be used in Hinduism, which Hindus see as a way of honoring the Gods, but it is unclear if this was what ‘Lisa’ was doing. Mack declined to expand on her complaint.

Almena’s response to the fire has included language which suggested he saw himself as a father-figure.

‘They’re my children. They’re my friends, they’re my family, they’re my loves, they’re my future. What else do I have to say,’ he told San Francisco’s KGO-TV.

One of them defended him in an interview with DailyMail.com – using language which suggested Almena remained convinced he was leading a ‘family’.

According to sources, there were approximately 50 people at the Ghost Ship party the night of the fire, of whom 36 died. Of the deceased victims, all but one were visitors to the warehouse. The party was held in Almena’s second-floor family residence. The stairway to the second floor was just stacked crates, which caught fire. Residents reportedly found their way out of the building, but visitors were unable to escape the 10,000-square-foot maze of cult-like crap that cluttered the old warehouse.

Almena, 46, told NBC the unlikely story that he did not organize or attend the event, which he described as “a fusion of art and culture,” held in his residence. In fact, he stayed in a nearby hotel that night with his wife and three children. How convenient.

Mack said a man called Max Ohr – nicknamed ‘Warlord’ – was Almena’s right-hand man and would regularly do the leader’s bidding. … It’s believed Ohr, who escaped the blaze on Friday, was running the door for the rave that night.

The violent side of the Almena’s group has also been exposed in court papers and by the testimony of other tenants who lived under Almena’s rule and visitors to the warehouse. Last year Almena was accused by artists and events producers of stealing equipment, breaking contracts, and making violent threats, according to court documents.

Philippe Lewis said that he rented the Ghost Ship for an event on January 3, 2015, but that Almena demanded extra money for the space. When he refused to pay more, he says Almena became violent and stole his sound system ‘hiding it in the space.’

During the incident, it was claimed, Almena locked individuals into the converted warehouse and held them captive. In a petition for a restraining order filed with the Alameda Superior Court, Lewis alleged that Almena threatened him.

‘I’m going to get my gun,’ he allegedly told Lewis, who had seen a box of new bullets while in the property.

He also claims he was attacked, sustained a dislocated shoulder and was kicked in the head by Almena’s henchmen – who assaulted Lewis on their leader’s orders. He also says claims he saw evidence of a gun and bows and crossbow weapons on the property.

A friend of Lewis’, who asked not to be named, told DailyMail.com: ‘Philippe doesn’t want to have to deal with Almena any more than he has to, they are a violent group. He’s trying to protect his family right now.’

Another man who was at the party for the same dispute wrote in court documents that: ‘I was robbed of my iPhone & Philippe’s property at Derrick’s (sic) direction & beaten by his staff.’

Speaking to DailyMail.com, the man who asked not to be named, said: ‘I was at a party with a friend who had set up an event. I had never been there before. There was an argument over money and Almena tried to beat my friend up and I videoed it on my phone. Almena ordered his people to attack me. They beat me up as well. I called the police but nothing was done.

‘It was very sinister and I spent a lot of time telling people not to go back there.’

Almena promoted himself as a spiritual man and says on social media he’s a ‘student of the shadows’. He purported to worship the Hindu gods Shiva and Kali. In Hinduism our present time is Kali Yuga – ruled over by Kali, the demon who is the source of all evil.

The Alameda County district attorney said a criminal probe is underway. Charges, which could include murder, have yet to be filed. Almena has a criminal history and is currently on probation for receiving stolen property – an Airstream trailer RV.

Meanwhile, Almena has lawyered up. His lead attorney is circus ringmaster Tony Serra, whose high profile client list includes such unsavory characters as the Hells Angels and Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

And while family members of the deceased file lawsuits, fundraisers are reeling in the dough. SFGate on Monday reported that nearly 50 musicians are boarding the Ghost Ship benefit bandwagon by releasing a compilation album.

So was the Ghost Ship fire simply a tragic end to a rave, or was it a human sacrifice? That’s for you decide.

What is certain is the Ghost Ship fire is illustrative of America’s decay, its cultural rot and the failures of globalism. With it destroyed, it’s time to shed some light on some of the Bay Area’s sinister sites and ties to occultism.

For example, the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the home of the Catholic diocese in Oakland, is similar to Paul VI Audience Hall in Rome in that it depicts satanic symbolism. Unless you’re interested in a masonic architectural tour of Oakland’s Lake Merritt, I recommend skipping to minute 8:00 of the following video.