James "Jim" Pickering is a sociopathic killer who lives on Vermillion Key and regularly brings young girls – who he calls "nieces" – to his island house.
Pickering ultimately met his match when he encountered Emily Jackson and tried to hold her hostage before killing her. Emily escaped the house and fled down the beach with Pickering in pursuit, but Emily led Pickering to his death in the ocean, where the madman drowned.
His relation, if any, to Derry, Maine resident Charlie Pickering is currently unknown.