David Anthony Kennedy (June 15, 1955 – April 25, 1984) was born in Washington, D.C. He was the fourth of eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.

Witnessing his father's assassination on June 5, 1968 fueled David's introspection and sensitivity. Like others in his generation of Kennedys, he began recreational drug use shortly thereafter.

A 1973 Jeep accident, in which his eldest brother, Joseph Kennedy II, was driving, left his then-girlfriend, Pamela Kelley, paralyzed. David sustained a fractured vertebra and became addicted to the painkillers he was given in the hospital. He began shooting heroin that autumn in his final year at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts.