Leon Scott Kennedy, more commonly known as Leon S. Kennedy is an Italian-American[8] currently employed as a federal agent by the Division of Security Operations (D.S.O.), a counter-terrorism agency under direct Presidential command. Kennedy is a known survivor of the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident, at the time a police officer. Following his escape, he was forcefully recruited into a top secret anti-Umbrella team under USSTRATCOM devoted to anti-B.O.W. combat, serving it until 2011 in repeated operations around the world.Kennedy had no travel plans or apartment in Raccoon City, and in the hasty departure, broke up with his girlfriend. Stopping at a motel for the night, he passed out from heavy drinking and woke up on the afternoon on September 29, a Tuesday. Kennedy continued driving into the city hungover, now late for reporting in to the station.[11] Driving through Arklay County, he passed through the highway blockade erected by the United States Army and Army National Guard on the night of September 29, which had fallen due to the chaos within the city.[12]Kennedy is known to have suffered a traumatic childhood due to his family's connections to crime. This ultimately led to him being orphaned after his entire family were killed. Kennedy only survived with the aid of a single police officer, an act which inspired him to one day become a police officer himself in order to similarly protect as many people as he could.[9] Upon graduating from the police academy at the age of 21, Kennedy requested assignment to work for the Raccoon Police Department. His reason was interest in the widely publicized but unsolved bizarre murder cases taking place in and around the Arklay Mountains.[10]Massachusetts, in what had hallmarks of an inside job. American spies reported having seen the girl, Ashley Graham, in Spain and tracked her to an isolated, rural community.[29] With all government agents being thoroughly investigated to identify the mole, Kennedy was sent alone to investigate the area.[30][31]

Kennedy in Spain, 2004.

Arriving with two municipal Madridian police officers, Kennedy was almost immediately attacked by the local villagers who forced the two officers into a ravine. The approach to the village uncovered evidence of multiple murders performed by the villagers as a whole. Over the course of the day it was uncovered that the villagers were followers of a neopagan cult called Los Iluminados. Led by its Prophet, Osmund Saddler and his lieutenants Fr. Bitores Méndez and Ramón Salazar, they implanted a genetically engineered parasite called a Plaga into members as part of their baptismal ceremonies to ensure obedience, before ordering them to kill all intruders to protect their research.[32]

Kennedy himself was taken captive by the cult immediately after finding a hostage and implanted with one of the Plagas in the Prophet Saddler's hopes he would become useful. The reason for this was not widely known, even to his lieutenants, and the villagers were more than willing to continue trying to kill him. His fellow hostage who he escaped with, Dr. Luis Sera, was a mole within the Prophet Saddler's bio-weapons development program and was captured trying to escape with a stolen Dominant species Plaga egg in exchange for being rescued by The Organisation, a secretive group Dr. Albert Wesker was connected with. Unwilling at the time to reveal this information, he instead lied about being a former Madridian police officer held captive.[32]

Kennedy and Ashley escapes from Saddler.

Kennedy's search through the village suggested Graham was being held within a chapel, but it would be over six hours before he was able to get inside after passing out, possibly from complications involving the Plaga. Inside he quickly released Graham from captivity, but the two were confronted by the Prophet Saddler, who revealed that he and Graham were both implanted with Plaga eggs, with the intention of Graham being released back to the United States as a mole who could expand his power base.[33] The two attempted to escape from the village, but soon found that a government helicopter on stand-by to pick them up had been shot down, which Leon theorised could only be the mole's doing.[31] This act forced them to seek shelter for the night, initially in a secluded house and later in the nearby castle.[34] Along the way Kennedy was forced to fight Fr. Méndez, who was angry at the loss of his congregation.

During exploration of the castle, the government radio frequency was jammed,[35] the mole having detailed knowledge of their radio frequencies. Soon after, Kennedy was introduced to Salazar,[36] a young nobleman who controlled the castle and boasted an army of monks armed with medieval weaponry. Graham herself was taken hostage repeatedly,[37][38] leaving Kennedy on his own for much of the night. Near the courtyard, he ran into Wong, who he quickly deduced was working with Dr. Wesker's group,[39] who was the agent sent to retrieve Dr. Sera's egg sample. Dr. Sera himself was killed soon after by the Prophet Saddler, who saw no reason to keep him alive when he saw he had the sample in his hand.[40] The Prophet Saddler then left to Los Iluminados' research complex on a nearby island with Graham, while Kennedy was forced to explore the entire fortress from the ruins of an ancient underground city to a Cathedral on a tower. After killing Salazar, whose body had merged into the "Queen Plaga", Kennedy travelled to the island with Wong in search of Graham once more.[41][42]

Kennedy faces Krauser in a knife fight.

In the exploration of the island, Kennedy was able to rescue Graham from her prison cell and fought B.O.W. by-products of Plaga experimentation such as the Regeneradores. After travelling through a warehouse district where plans to set up a navy were in place, Graham was again taken captive, this time with the Prophet Saddler directly controlling her by manipulating her Plaga.[43] In the pursuit, Kennedy was confronted by none other than Krauser, who had joined the Organisation after his experience in South America and faked his death.[44] Krauser had been the original agent tackled with obtaining a Dominant species Plaga sample and took part in the kidnapping of Graham to get it, with Wong being sent in to take over the mission when he was determined to be a liability after becoming the host of that very Plaga sample.

As the sun rose, Kennedy's fight against Los Iluminados continued with him seriously wounding Krauser following a mutation though mistook him for dead. Wong would later kill him. With the radio jamming ceased, Kennedy got in contact with a second government helicopter which launched an assault on the cult's militia before being destroyed by a rocket launcher on the Prophet Saddler's orders.[45][46] Taking clues left by Dr. Sera for anyone storming the island, Kennedy and Graham were able to find the original equipment designed to kill prototype Plagas and freed themselves of the parasites.[47]

Kennedy and Ashley escape the Los Iluminados.

The cult leader was himself killed by a rocket launcher with the help of Wong after Graham's rescue. Kennedy's retrieval of the egg sample from the remains was short-lived, and Wong herself turned on him to complete her mission, though she ensured he had a means of escaping the island with Graham in the form of a jet-ski.[48] The two escaped as a series of explosive charges planted by Wong caused the complex's destruction, bringing about cave-ins. After being picked up by the government, Kennedy's report on the Plagas, dubbed the "Kennedy Report", was shared with the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance to ensure a defense against the Plagas in future.

Kennedy would later become aware of survivors of the cult in the region, who gained interest in bioterrorism. Refugees who had fled the cult also returned home to their village, but were parasitised by the Plagas, making the region dangerous once more.