My prime suspect is Dean Harkin

1) First lets look at his name and the meaning. As we know this show there alot of cryptic clues that we have to decipher.

*Dean (Definition of *) - The head of a faculty. The senior member, of any group, organization.
A man who is the senior member of a group
(Red John as alot of followers and clearly he is the Head and Senior member of this group)

**Harkin (Definition of **) - Irish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Harkin is "Dark Red".
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEarcáin
‘descendant of Earcán’, a byname or personal name formed
from a diminutive of earc ‘Red’, ‘Bloody'.


2) In Episode 11 Season1, when Jared Renfrew writes on the wall "He is Mar" - could he have instead meant to have written "He is Har" as in "He is Harkin"  (Just a thought)

3) Rosalind Harker - again a play on names - both Dean and Rosalind have very similiar surnames Harker and Harken.
RJ and Rosalind were lovers and this could be a clue that links them together.

4) He as powerful friends in the FBI - in the episode Code Red he states
"I'll call my friends at the FBI, get them to take over from you. In fact, I will do that."


5) Hes description - He as Red hair and fits the description of what Rosalind describes.

6) He's probably married (has a wedding ring at finger), and Patrick Jane describes him as one who scares people, and an irksome man.

so CBS is saying that out of the 30 suspects only 7 will be left after the season finale...BUT what if,...1.RJ is not one of those 7...2.-what if a woman is on the list,to me the perfect choice would be rosalind or christina frye.There's so much more to the characters that we don't know and patrick has spent some time with them he studied them and we really don't know what he thinks of them.maybe when he was on a date with christina he saw something to make her suspisious which explains the rolltide by rj when he met patrick.which explains why they didnt like each other when they met and shook hands.maybe after putting all the clues together he might link them to being red john...3.-what if a woman is not on the final 7 list but is revealed to be RJ...and had men do her work as rj in order to thow everybody off...maybe even lisbon would make sense as rj...but i'm hoping is walter it would make the season 6 finale much more fun than the rest of the suspects...besides bret and walter  the rest of the suspects don't have chemistry with patrick like these 2.

Notice how Rosalind Harker has never mentioned Roy Tagliaferro has an odd voice--that's probably cause he doesn't. An odd voice would be hard not to notice, specially by Harker who has all her other senses but vision heightened. Roy Tagliaferro is not the same man who killed those kids copying his work--cause that one had an odd voice--and he's also not the guy who met the little girl in the park (Red Rover, Red Rover)--she also mentioned the odd voice. So probably the one who shot those kids is the same guy who met that little girl, but Tagliaferro is someone else.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

OKAY I WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING NEW ON THIS WEBSITE WHICH IS HELPING EACH OTHER WORK TOGETHER. Simply start off the theory how i have and then add extra information which will help other people/


Okay this is my opinion and you can stop reading now if you want to but please just hear me out.

First of all, let me just say I honestly don't care who Red John is apart from as long as it makes sence.
So if Red John was Brett Stiles then that would make perfect sense. If it was Brett Partridge then they better have a good reason why.

Anyway, I would hate the fact of Brett Partridge being Red John, i would rather it being someone like Tommy Volker. There's something about that guy which i find interesting.

Anyway, sorry for wasting your time, the point of this was to add more information and make you think differently. I have just finished watching all the The Mentalist episodes and i have come across a few things which you should take into account.

- Rosalind could be Grace Van Pelt's sister. They both redheaded/ginger and it seems like Van Pelt has been hiding something you know. Also, Van Pelt always argue when Jane says Psychic's do not exist. Maybe she has been hypnotized by red john and been made to believe in a make believe world?

- Another point is that, lets look at it from a more generic view. Although, we have reason to believe Robert 'Bob' Kirkland could be Red John, it is too obvious. He will be linked with Red John but won't be Red John.

- Red John is someone who can make some one do anything, from killing multiple people to not telling the police because they fear Red John coming for them if they say anything.

- Lorelei was killed by Red John. She could have had a chance to tell Patrick Jane who Red John is but felt she could kill him by herself. She thought she could kill him. Kill him. This makes Lorelei seem like a very charismatic and confident person or Red John being *Someone you should NOT underestimate.

- Look for mistakes. Are there any mistakes that Bruno Heller accidently made or regret he made. Maybe in one of the episodes, he gave a big clue away by accident.

- Easter Eggs & Clues. Look for clues and things you might miss. Like for example, the "Red John Car" which appears with spooky music and patrick jane looking at the car near the end of one episode. Also another is Van Pelt's CV which states she worked at a farm when she was younger.

- Red John is someone who has most likely be mentioned and/or seen by the end of Season 4 in my opinion. Every new comer who we think is Red John after Season 4 will only be someone who is linked to Red John. 

- Something we are nearly certain off is that Red John used to work for Visualize. Brett Stiles most likely knows his identity but knows exactly what Red John is capable of which is why he is quite and stays shut. Brett Stiles is very important in the Red John storyline. Red John probably worked at Visaulize and then turned mad and left?

Other questions and statements which your opinion is needed on is:
How old is Red John?
Is he one person or multiple people?
Somebody needs to make a list of exactly who Red John is connected to.
What do these people have in common?
Red John has killed and raped multiple women, why women? (in b4 gay&sexual jokes)
He gets a lot of people to do his dirty work.
He gets away with it. Killing many people yet he has not been caught yet. 
Could he have worked at the CBI or have Police knowledge?


Thanks, try to do what i have done by starting the theory off with "ADDITIONAL INFORMATION" and accusing Someone else.


Thank You