Confidential: THE CELLULOID KID

This entry in our Confidential Series ‒ spotlighting the enclave's less savory side ‒ concerns The Celluloid Kid, a long-sought jewel thief finally captured in 1936 in the lobby of No 5.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle headline, May 8, 1936.

The Daily News' version of the story, below:

The Celluloid Kid, long sought by police for his ingenious burglaries, was betrayed into their hands yesterday by the telltale prints of his clever fingers.

He was arrested at 5:20 P.M. in the lobby of 5 Prospect Place, Tudor City, because tenants thought he was acting suspiciously and he could give detectives no respectable references. The name he gave, Albert Lloyd, of the Hotel Wellington, meant nothing. But the fingerprints told the story ‒ he was the long-sought Celluloid Kid.

He got his nickname, police said, because he is a master at opening doors with strips of celluloid six inches long and two and a half inches wide. Several such strips were found on him. 

In Lloyd's hotel room in Manhattan was found a valise with $5,000 worth of jewelry, another containing $200 worth of heroin and 50 hypodermic needles.

Although he has been wanted for many years in New York, Montreal and Philadelphia ‒ where it is said his total loot must have been well over $100,000 ‒ he was elusive as he is skillful, police said. His last arrest was in 1926. He was convicted, and served two years in Sing Sing for an $80,000 Park Avenue gem theft.