Leon S. Kennedy

Leon Kennedy was an idealistic, young rookie cop who got caught up in the Raccoon City incident and went on to become a top agent working for the US Government.

As he was graduating through the police training schools, he pushed for a post in Raccoon City, having found himself fascinated by the strange goings-on that had plagued the mountain community the previous summer. Raccoon was in the process of recruiting several new officers to ease the growing fears of the citizens, many of whom were still at rest, as strange cases of people inexplicably disappearing seemed to be on the rise again.



Leon got his wish and was assigned to start his new job on September 29th 1998. However, just prior to beginning this new and exciting chapter in his life, his personal life was thrown into chaos when problems in his relationship meant that he broke up with his girlfriend. Leon had always been a little awkward around women and the sudden loss of his partner hit him hard. Against all good sense, Leon attended a party the night before he was due to start his new job and got drunk to drown his sorrows.

Feeling rough the next day, Leon overslept in his motel and was late for his first ever shift as a police officer. Frantically, he donned his uniform and headed for Raccoon City. He tried to call his supervising officer several times, yet received no response.

When he arrived, he found that the town had gone to hell and the streets crawling with zombies. He met up with Claire Redfield, the younger sister of S.T.A.R.S. member Chris; she had come to town looking for him.

At the police station Leon found all the officers had been wiped out. He encountered Ada Wong, an agent of ‘The Organization’ who told him she was simply in town looking for her boyfriend, John. Leon decided there and then he was going to try and protect her. He later saved her life when Umbrella researcher Annette Birkin shot her at. The way he took a bullet for her after they only just met seemed to melt Ada’s cold resolve and as they progressed, they began to develop feelings for one another.

Whilst in Umbrella’s lab, Ada was seemingly killed and Leon eventually escaped on an underground train alongside Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin after they had destroyed the William Birkin G creature.

Immediately afterwards, Claire headed off alone to begin to search for her missing brother. Leon and Sherry were picked up by the authorities. The government were extremely interested in Sherry as she had the G-Virus antibodies flowing through her system. After being impressed with Leon’s survival skills, they made an offer of work to him. Initially hesitant, Leon finally accepted for no other reason than to guarantee Sherry’s safety.

Using his newfound position, Leon began to search out Chris Redfield. It proved to be a mundane task, as Chris had gone to ground in an attempt to conceal his movements during his personal investigation into Umbrella’s European branch. However, thanks to the unique access his new role afforded him, Leon eventually managed to track him down. He then intended to relay this information to Claire, however she had become a ghost herself leaving Leon frustrated,

Following the resignation of the President after the Raccoon City incident, the new administration laid out their intentions to earn public support and repair their shattered reputation by talking a hefty anti-Umbrella stance.

Leon continued his own investigations into the corporation and pinpointed their dealings on Sheena Island, a small backwater isle somewhere in the Atlantic. He asked and hired his friend, a private investigator by the name of Ark Thompson, to look into the matter. The resulting investigation ended up with the destruction of Umbrella’s mass-producing Tyrant plant, a crippling blow to the company.

It was late December 1998 when he received a sudden e-mail out of the blue from Claire Redfield. She had been captured by Umbrella and imprisoned on Rockfort Island. However, she had discovered the exact location of her brother Chris, as Umbrella had him under surveillance. Using this information, Leon got in touch with Chris and sent him the co-ordinates of Rockfort Island. Chris responded by setting out for Rockfort immediately alone, and asked Leon to mobilise a rescue operation.

Thanks to the information Leon provided, Chris’s actions resulted in the destruction of both Alexia Ashford and the Umbrella South Pole facility.

After the incident, Leon became aware of Albert Wesker and that the threat he posed was potentially more dangerous than Umbrella itself. He also heard whispers that Ada Wong was actually still alive and was working with him. Despite his best efforts, he could never find solid evidence of this.

As the years went by, Leon continued to receive special training and hone his skills. Thanks to his previous experiences, he was assigned a special mission by the President himself to permanently eradicate the biological agents created by Umbrella. This special mission was designated Anti-Virus Weapon Protocol No. 7600 and afforded Leon a number of special privileges.

As a direct tie in to this order, Leon found himself back in the field in South America in 2002, investigating the disappearance of a famed drug lord who had ties to Umbrella. For this mission he was partnered with a US SOCOM agent by the name of Jack Krauser.

Over the course of the operation they discovered that the drug lord, Javier Hidalgo was in possession of the T-Veronica virus. He had used it to treat his daughter Manuela’s illness, but in the process of doing so had produced several B.O.W.s, including the V-complex, a giant plant that had the potential to take over and infect the surrounding eco-system. Despite all Leon had learned about Veronica from Claire, the virus was thriving in the hotter climates of the South American jungle. However, they managed to defeat both it and Javier Hidalgo, preventing the further spread of infection.

Manuela was taken into protective custody of the US Government just like Sherry had been four years earlier. Krauser had sustained a serious injury during the mission and left the military shortly thereafter. Leon was later told he had died in an accident.

In 2004, Leon had received further special training and was re-assigned to serve as protector for the US President’s family. This was due to the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham, being recently abducted by persons unknown whilst she was on her way home from university. Leon’s first assignment in this new role was to track her down and bring her home.

Intelligence reports led Leon to Southern Europe where he uncovered a religious cult going by the name of Los Illuminados. They had kidnapped Ashley and injected her with a parasite known as Las Plagas. They then planned to send her back to the US and let the parasite spread across the country.

During the mission, Leon was captured and injected with the parasite but he refused to let this slow him down. He also encountered old flame Ada Wong. When he accused her of working with Wesker she did nothing to deny the claim but refused to reveal her reasons for being part of this mission.

He also came face to face with Jack Krauser, his former comrade who he believed to be dead. Krauser had switched allegiance and was now working for Wesker. He was also responsible for kidnapping Ashley in the first place. They came to blows and just as Krauser seemed to be gaining the upper hand, Leon’s life was saved by Ada.

Eventually, Leon managed to rescue Ashley and get rid of the parasites growing in their bodies. Once again with the help of Ada he managed to destroy cult leader Osmund Saddler and retrieve the control plaga sample. Just before he was able to escape the island however, Ada took the sample from him.

Following the incident, Leon submitted a detailed report on the incident, a copy of which was delivered to the B.S.A.A. All Leon’s knowledge of the Las Plagas parasite would prove to be very handy five years later when the incident in Kijuju occurred.

On October 23rd 2005, a T-Virus outbreak was reported in the town of Harvardville, which was roughly 100 miles away from the ruins of Raccoon City in a suspected terrorist attack. The infection was confined to the airport and the authorities had sealed it off. The White House dispatched Leon to deal with the situation. Leon hoped the mission would lead to intelligence which would help them track down former employees of Umbrella whom the government believed were peddling the T-Virus on the black market.

Leon and members of the local Special Response Team infiltrated the airport and rescued several stranded civilians, one of which happened to be Claire Redfield.

When one of the terrorists was possibly identified as former Terrasave member Curtis Miller, Leon headed over to his house along with Curtis’ sister Angela to pick him up. However, Miller had already left for the new Wilpharma building.

Leon later got a phone call from Claire to say that the G-Virus was at the facility and that the building had been attacked. Leon and Angela raced over and after helping Claire they discovered that Curtis had injected himself with the G-Virus and transformed.

Eventually, Leon and Angela managed to kill the creature and escape with their lives. Later that night, Leon and Claire arrested rogue researcher Fredrick Downing and recovered the T-Virus vaccine data.

Leon and Claire then parted ways once more, promising that their next meeting would be in more normal circumstances.