Cleaning up my inbox this evening I came across an email I received back in June 2011 from a local paranormal investigator. In it they asked me if I had every heard of an underground society in the Fresno area that possibly had vampiric practices. The person also mentioned something about a door on Belmont Ave under the overpass that's east of Roeding Park and it being a possible entrance to an underground area where the society supposedly meets.
From the description they gave me the door is sometimes locked, but is usually left ajar. The investigator asked around and was told it was nothing more than a maintenance room but decided to investigate for themselves. They parked their car a bit away and walked to the door. Unfortunately the door was padlocked but the way the lock is set up you can somewhat squeeze in to have a look (if you look at the photo I posted you can see what the person meant). They were able to shine a light inside and saw a set of stairs going down and nothing that would portray the room as being something for storing maintenance supplies there.
The door to a secret undergound society? Or to a broom closet?
Now I wrote the person back but never received a response. Could the person be trying to pull a fast one on me? Perhaps. Or the conspiracy theorist would say the person who contacted me was "taken care of" by the underground society (I like to think they have their own version of Luca Brasi). But if that was the case, why not me as well? Most likely this was just some rumor the person heard and knowing that I like to keep track of all things strange in Fresno, contacted me to see if I knew of anything. And when I said I didn't, they probably lost interest in the subject.
But that doesn't mean there aren't secret societies in Fresno. There's a Freemason Lodge on Shields Avenue, and I believe there is also a Odd Fellow's Lodge in the area too. I know these aren't that secret anymore; but they still are clouded in mystery, especially the Freemasons. As for any vampiric secret societies in the Fresno area, I doubt they exist. But if they do, please feel free to have a member contact me. But just don't drink my blood. I imagine with the amount of nachos I eat it would be like drinking Tapatio.