John "Florida" Hickory is a resident of Vice City in 1986. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, he appears as a guest on VCPR's Pressing Issues, alongside Congressman Alex Shrub and Callum Crayshaw. He is very a very patriotic Floridian, since moving to Vice City in 1981, going so far to even taking the states name as his middle name (Maurice Chavez, the Pressing Issues host, asks Hickory "Why the F in your name?" Hickory replies "For Florida!"), and believes that Florida should secede from the union, and once Florida becomes a nation, seal the borders to people from the United States. He plans on achieving secession by "building a river...a river of freedom!" to divide the continental United States and Florida. He vehemently implores Floridians to "go into [their] backyards and dig a river of freedom!"He also seems to say that after the completion of his freedom river, people should go to the north and build a moat to keep them off permanently.
He's not without his own ambition for power, and says that when the "Nation" of Florida is floating out in the caribbean things, under his rule floridans will be able to run things their way.He also announces free Barbeque and Pinball for everyone during his rule, and he refers to them as "Sophisticated Entertainment".He has a heavy southern accent, and is also a redneck.But it seems that he views not himself, but people from further north of the state as rednecks(Calling them Damn Redneck Hicks with no classs and Yellow bellied snakes).At one point he tells Maurice not to think of him as a racist, claiminng he hates everybody irrevelent of other issues, but yet again, he admits to hating Yankees the most. Hickory is strongly against non-floridans using Theme Parks of Florida, and mocks Disneyland as Redneck Land. Maurice calls John Hickory a successionist lunatic.He claims to be so patriotic that he actually has tattoed an orange grove in his groin.