Have been thinking this through, probably more than I should, and this is what I came up with so far:
1) It is Bret Stiles' long "lost" partner from back in the day when they were putting Visualize together. I think that Stiles himself tried to end the menace called Red John in the early days by attempting to kill him, but failed to do so.
Why? -In the beginning of season 5 we saw what probably is the first act of Red John - the killing of 2 Visualize members, which have set him on a revenge course against his buddy Stiles. Now, once he was almost caught in the basement with the bodies (the daughter of the vet said that she thought someone was watching them there) he realized that he cannot do what he's set out to do by himself, therefore recruiting men and women willing to join his cause. Then he realized that the "petty" dream of chasing his arch enemy was nothing compared to what he can now accomplish with the army of people he amassed (practically gaining the same thing Bret stripped him of), he gave up on chasing Stiles and devoted himself to do the one thing that fulfills him the most - kill.
Most likely suspect: Sheriff McAllister. If my "memory palace" is as good as i think it is, someone informed Jane that Bret's partner was killed, but soon after, the sheriff who was investigating was found dead. My theory - the partner escaped Stiles, killed the sheriff, then assumed the role of sheriff himself, in order to keep some track of what's going on, without having to rely on anyone else. Also, he creeped my pants off when he was insisting that Van Pelt should go with him way back in season 1.
2)I strongly believe that the given list is in fact not the precise one. Notice how Jane smiles when his Red John HQ was raided? He was certainly expecting someone to break in, hence the toothpick, but in my opinion he is throwing everyone off, giving them more names than he has picked off, while he continues pursuing his 2-3 targets with less interruptions. We know that Bob Kirkland copied the contents of the room, so when season 6 comes through I expect to find him dead, as he was unable to provide Red John with the full extent of Jane's insights, so he had to go through other people to get what he needed. Also, Lorelei's stutter while mentioning Ray Haffner's name is probably caused by the fact that she knows he is already dead.
3)
- Brett Partridge is also not RJ, he is enthusiastic about death and violence because it's in his nature, but, as they say, barking dogs seldom bite;
- Gale Bertram is a high-ranking disciple of the RJ, but not the man himself, he gets easily annoyed when he's not the smartest person in the room, and usually presents that in a way that it's hard not to notice;
- Ray Haffner is an idealist, he thinks that he can profit while being involved with Visualize, which will probably lead to his demise not long from now.
- Reede Smith is unlikely to be someone of the caliber of Red John, simply because he was incompetent enough to be interrogated on the subject of RJ by the CBI, to which as a defense he could only provide vague answers.
If luck serves me like always, none of the above will turn out right, but right now, this is my perspective of things.
