The ghost of Hooky Jack, a Rapid City police officer who died in 1926, still haunts a building on Seventh Street.

At least, 18-year-old Chance Lester believes that's true, and he intends to document it.

"He haunts that place because he used to live on the third floor," said the Rapid City home-schooled student.

Lester and a group of friends who call themselves the South Dakota Paranormal Investigators - they even have matching yellow SDPI sweatshirts - spent Saturday night holed up on the third floor of the restaurant with a video camera, asking the ghost to make noise and show itself.

Lester thinks he felt the ghost tap on the floor, and the group plans to keep looking for ghosts there and in other haunted places around the Black Hills.

"I've never been afraid of ghosts," he said. "I'm a believer."

Lester said Hooky Jack is a "benign" ghost, as they are called in the paranormal business.

Hooky Jack, whose real name was John Leary, lost both arms in a mining explosion in the 1800s and had them replaced with hooks.

He later became a Rapid City police officer. He was struck and killed by a car in downtown Rapid City Nov. 6, 1916.

The building, formerly Hooky Jack's restaurant and Phatty McGee's nightclub, is now home to the Sports Rock restaurant.

Lester, who has been interested in paranormal investigation since he was 10, said the Sports Rock managers allowed him to spend some time on the second and third floors of the building.

He and his friend Luke Dunnihoo decided to give it a try. For their first investigation, they took a camera to the third floor on Friday, Feb. 15.

Lester's procedure involves taking many random photographs of the area to see if a paranormal activity can be noticed in any of the photos.

He ended up with one photo he believes shows the slight image of a man's face within a group of people and another where he sees a clearer image of a man's smiling face.

That image, Lester said, is Hooky Jack's ghost.

While the Hooky Jack legend is the first he's investigated, there is a long list of paranormal reports at other Black Hills area places, Lester said.

Other possible ghost-sighting locations on the list include the Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City; the Bullock Hotel, Mount Moriah Cemetery and Silverado, all in Deadwood; the Mountain View Cemetery in Keystone and the Gaslight Saloon in Rockerville.

"That one (the Gaslight Saloon) is supposed to be haunted by the former owner of the Hotel Harney, Samuelson Harney," Lester said.

"The report is that if you walk to the door, you see a slim man in the window, waving to you."

Allison Boddicker, a manager at Sports Rock, said she was more than willing to allow Lester to explore the building for Hooky Jack's ghost.

"It's always been an interest of ours," she said.

Boddicker has worked in the building for about four years and said she and other employees have experienced paranormal activity.

"I have watched the security cameras and seen little orbs, or little flashes of light," she said.

Boddickers said another manager once reported being the last person to leave at night and while locking the door, noticed the image of a face in the glass.

"We always hear noises on the second floor and water running," she said.

Boddicker said the third-floor, where Hooky Jack lived, is the "creepiest" part of the building.

"I won't even go up there in daylight," she said.

Lester said he hopes to make South Dakota Paranormal Investigators into a profitable business, by selling images of the ghosts he catches on video.

His next investment will be the purchase of a thermal camera.

"It will show you areas of hot and cold and what passes by you," he said.

Thermal cameras cost about $4,000, he said.

So far, he hasn't made any money, and he isn't giving up his job bagging groceries at Safeway.

Lester will graduate in May and begin college in the fall. He'll pursue a degree in athletic training at National American University in Rapid City, but plans to continue investigating the paranormal when he's not studying.

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com