How RFK Jr.'s brother David Kennedy lost his fight with addiction in a Palm Beach hotel
Only months after he had gotten clean himself, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Kennedy family lost his younger brother to addiction at a Palm Beach hotel in 1984.
RFK Jr., nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has spoken openly about his own 14-year battle with addiction to heroin.
But his "best friend," brother David, didn't make it. He died at age 28 of a drug overdose at the Brazilian Court Hotel in April 1984. David Kennedy's autopsy showed a mixture of cocaine, the painkiller, Demerol, and the tranquilizer, Mellaril.
David Kennedy died alone in a Palm Beach hotel
When the family got together for Easter at the Kennedy estate at 1095 N. Ocean Blvd., David reportedly got thrown out because he was intoxicated and was acting erratic.
It's not clear whether RFK Jr. was also there.
But in addition to David, news accounts put two other brothers at the compound.
The oldest son of RFK Sr. and Ethel's 11 children, Joseph, was there. Also, younger brother Douglas checked in with David to stay in the $150-a-night room at the Brazilian Court five days before David's death.
A woman who had dated David a few days before his death said he'd been sobbing and was severely depressed.
History: Which Kennedy family member overdosed in a Palm Beach hotel?
David died alone.
A secretary knocked on his door the morning of April 5. When Elizabeth Barnett didn't get an answer, she used her pass key to get in.
His mother Ethel had frantically called the hotel, saying he hadn’t shown up for his flight to Boston.
In the room, Barnett found both beds made and David in between them.
She touched his face. He was gone.
When the hotel called Ethel back, Ethel said, “He’s dead, isn’t he?” and hung up the phone.
Two bellhops were later arrested on charges of supplying the drugs, but they took a plea deal for lesser charges and got probation.
The Kennedy brothers' addictions started soon after RFK Sr.'s assassination
David at age 12 had been at the Ambassador Hotel in June 1968, watching news footage of his father's assassination, which happened downstairs. RFK Jr., age 14, had been there, too.
Both would begin using drugs soon after, around the same time.
RFK Jr. said his heroin addiction began at age 15, David's at 13.
Family members said the assassination may have triggered David's addiction, but a car crash in 1973 likely made it worse.
How RFK Jr. got sober
David was the fourth child of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy and RFK Jr. was the third, two years older than David.
Seven months before David died, his older brother had been arrested in Rapid City, South Dakota, on heroin possession charges after he became sick on an airliner. The 29-year-old was released by police and joined a drug rehabilitation program a few days later in September 1983.
RFK Jr. said this year that he had attended 40 years of 12-step meetings to escape “drugs, sex, alcohol or extreme behavior” and still does.
He said on a Latino Capitalist podcast in July that he wants the government to create free “wellness farms” in rural areas across the country for those battling addiction to “reparent” them away from using both legal and illegal drugs.
The government would pay for those in recovery to grow food on organic farms for three or four years with a sales tax on cannabis products, according to "Mother Jones."
Holly Baltz is the investigations editor at The Palm Beach Post. She also has a passion for history. You can reach her at hbaltz@pbpost.com.