The United States Secret Service is synonymous with the protection of the President. The legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln’s desk when he was assassinated on the evening of April 14, 1865, and was formally established ten weeks later. The department, however, was not initially given the task of protecting the Chief Executive; that responsibility came thirty-seven years later following the assassination of President William McKinley.

As the Civil War ended in April 1865, a currency war was still being fought. Over 1/3 of the legal tender in circulation was believed bogus, and the Secret Service was established by the Department of the Treasury to combat the counterfeiting. Though it is now under the Department of Homeland Security, investigating counterfeiting crimes is still one of the Secret Service’s primary responsibilities.

Twenty-six-year-old Julie Cross was one of the few female Secret Service Special Agents in 1980. While investigating a counterfeiting operation on June 4, she became the first female agent to be killed in the line of duty.

Special Agent Julie Cross

United States Secret Service

Julie Cross’s interest in police work started when she was young. She lost both of her parents by age ten and was raised in San Diego by her brother Peter, a reserve police officer. She was interested in her brother’s work and chose to follow in his footsteps for her career. She began by serving her community and then by serving her country.

Young Julie Was Born to Serve . . . 

After graduating with a Criminal Justice degree from San Diego State University, Julie became an officer with the San Diego Police Department. During her tenure from 1977-79, she received two commendations: one for helping solve a series of burglaries, and the other for performing CPR to revive a man suffering a heart attack.

. . . First As A San Diego Police Officer

Later in 1979, Julie was accepted by the United States Secret Service. She was so trusted and respected that only one month after being hired, she was part of the team assigned to protect President Jimmy Carter and presidential-candidate Ronald Reagan when they were campaigning in California.

. . . And Then As A Secret Service Agent

On June 1, 1980, Julie was assigned to a team of agents investigating a man suspected of counterfeiting currency in Los Angeles.

Three days later, on June 4, she and seven other Secret Service Agents were scattered in a section of Westchester, an area of Los Angeles near the International Airport. The agents were staking out the apartment complex of the suspected counterfeiter and were awaiting word an arrest warrant had been granted.

Surveillance At LAX

Julie and her partner, Special Agent Lloyd Bulman, were in an unmarked car at the end of the street. They were assigned to follow the suspect if he exited the apartment and entered his vehicle. Another Secret Service Agent sat in an unmarked van across the street from the residence.

As they waited, Agents Bulman and Cross noticed a brown vehicle, either an early ’70s Buick or Pontiac, drive by them and turn a corner. Approximately five minutes later, they noticed the same vehicle drive past them again; this time the driver parked approximately one-hundred feet in front of them. Two black men exited the vehicle and went into a different apartment complex from the one under surveillance. After approximately five more minutes, the agents saw the men exit the apartment complex, enter their vehicle, and drive off again.

Five to ten minutes later, after darkness had fallen, Agent Cross, sitting on the passenger side of the surveillance car, noticed a man with a gun approaching from the rear. Another armed man approached the driver’s side of the vehicle. Agent Cross was able to exit the vehicle and get her gun drawn on her assailant. She had him place his hands on the car, but the second gunman got the drop on Agent Bulman and held a gun on him before he could exit the vehicle. A standoff ensued.

With his gun aimed at Bulman, the driver’s side assailant ordered Agent Cross to let his partner go; she refused. Bulman tried to reason with his assailant. The gunmen seemed surprised and panicked when Bulman told them they were Secret Service Agents.

Agent Bulman did not see what occurred next, but the assailant somehow freed himself from Agent Cross. He came to the driver’s side of the car, took the key out of the ignition, and removed a shotgun from the car.

What happened next is also unclear. The next thing Agent Bulman noticed, his partner jumped into the front of the car and three gunshots rang out. As Bulman then fought with his assailant outside the car, Agent Cross’s assailant shot several times at him, but did not hit him. Bulman pretended he had been hit and feigned being dead. As he did so, the assailants made their way to their car and fled.

Bulman ran back to his car to radio for help. None of the other Secret Service agents had heard the gunshots which were drowned out by the roar of low-flying jets over the airport.

Secret Service Special Agents Julie Cross And Lloyd Bulman

Police and ambulances arrived quickly, but not in time. Three days after beginning her assignment in Los Angeles, Special Agent Julie Cross became the first female Special Agent to be killed in the one-hundred-fifteen year history of the Secret Service.

Killed In The Line Of Duty

The attackers absconded with two weapons from the agents, a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum Revolver and a Remington Model 870 shotgun.

Under hypnosis, Agent Bulman recalled details enabling composite sketches of the suspects to be developed. Both assailants were black. One stood around six-feet-two-inches and the other around five-feet-ten-inches. Each weighed approximately one-hundred-eighty to one-hundred-ninety pounds.

The men were driving a 1970-72 Buick or Pontiac two-door car, medium brown in color.

Composites Of The Killers

In 1992, Andre Alexander was convicted of a 1978 triple murder in Palms, part of west Los Angeles. The victims, coincidentally or not, were involved in counterfeiting. Alexander was operating a money-order forgery scheme and had not paid his cohorts. After they threatened to go to the police, he murdered them.

In their investigation of Alexander, authorities found evidence suggesting his involvement in the murder of Julie Cross twelve years earlier. He bore a resemblance to the composite of one of the suspects, and a pair of prescription glasses found at the scene was identical to a pair he wore in 1980.

Lloyd Bulman identified Alexander as the passenger-side assailant from a photo line-up. Vehicle records showed Alexander drove a medium-sized faded brown car with a lighter-colored top at the time of the murder.

At his trial, Alexander’s former girlfriend testified he had arrived at her house on the evening of the murder splattered in blood and carrying a shotgun in a blood-soaked bag. She also said he told her he had murdered someone near the airport but pressured her not to say anything.

Terry Brock, a lifelong friend of Alexander, was identified by Special Agent Bulman as the second gunman. At the time of the shooting, Alexander was dating Brock’s sister, and Brock and Alexander’s sister had a child together.

Andre Alexander

Andre Alexander was convicted of the murder of Secret Service Special Agent Julie Cross in 1996 and was sentenced to death. His final appeal was exhausted in 2010. He remains on death row and is incarcerated at California’s San Quentin prison. I could not find a picture of Terry Brock or learn what punishment he received.

Investigators are certain the murder of Agent Julie Cross was a random act unrelated to the counterfeit operation she was investigating. It is apparently only a coincidence that Andre Alexander was involved in counterfeiting as well. I found nothing indicating he was associated with the counterfeiter Special Agents Cross and Bulman were staking out on the evening of her murder.

On Death Row

Both the United States Secret Service and The Women in Federal Law Enforcement award a scholarship in Julie Cross’s name each year for young women planning to enter law enforcement.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103814747/julie-yvonne-cross

https://www.odmp.org/officer/3644-special-agent-julie-yvonne-cross

 

The First Female Fatality

SOURCES:

• Associated Press
• Los Angeles Times
• Officer Down Memorial Page
• United State Secret Service
• Unsolved Mysteries
• UPI