He fits the correct physical description (some of the other characters don't!) He has known Jane before Loreli Martins gave the "shook his hand" clue. He has a soft voice which matches the voice we've heard over the phone several times. Jane described him in his notebook (when he was formulating his list of Red John suspects, before the final list of 7), as "totally macabre". He's the one character in the show which Jane gets the creeps from and calls a ghoul. Partridge enjoys Red John crime cases way too much. He always misdirects him and says it's not RJ when it is, and that it isn't RJ when it actually is. Heller said we'd be disappointed when we found out who RJ is. I think Partridge would be a great candidate for disappointing us because he's in plain sight so often and because he's the so-called "Red John expert" because he's been to every single Red John crime scene.

It's common in many serial killers that they'll try to take part in their own crime in some way, for example the episode when a man who was a serial killer made an entire website dedicated to catching the serial killer. Partridge believes he can't be caught, and he gets pleasure in seeing corpses at crime scenes. Partridge also makes fun of Jane in an episode, saying "going to get your psychic juices flowing?" and he pantomimes a strange portrayal. When he claims to show him a real magic trick and gives him a list of all 7 suspects, he is putting Jane down. Partridge despises Jane, but also thrives on the fact that Jane can never catch him.

Finally, in episodes 1 and 2 of Season 6 it becomes very obvious that he faked his own death. Consider this from Red John's perspective: you have friends in the CBI and FBI. You know that your phone is tapped (he has his way of knowing practically everything.) What is the way that you can both get rid of your bug without suspicion, and make Jane and Lisbon never again consider you as a suspect? You fake your death. They never showed his body. When important figures die, such as Agent Wainright at the finale of Season 4, they always show the body. Showing the body verifies that the character is gone, which they have not done for Partridge. Why else would Lisbon go into a dark house alone? As a top agent she knows better, but to make it so that Lisbon is the only person who sees Partridge, they had to script it that way.

At the end of Season 6 Episode 1 pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION when Lisbon is grabbed. She is standing to the right of Partridge. She looks away from Partridge because she thinks she hears something. And she is then grabbed FROM BEHIND, which is where Partridge is in relation to her. She turned her body away from him, and he grabs her. In Episode 2 Bertram claims Partridge was DOA (dead on arrival), however, Red John is always two steps ahead and makes things happen. We never see the body in the body bag. Remember when Jane and Lisbon go to jail to see Loreli Martins and they bring out somebody else, but the guard claims it's Martins, when clearly it is not? Red John can change information and make things happen. Jane is caught in a stupor and he is trying to find out which of the 6 people it is, and the last person he would consider anymore is Partridge. Red John is two steps ahead of Jane, as always.

It's Haffner.
When Jane releases the Sofia's [Jane's psychologist] record, she describes Red John. 
-Middle age, He strengthens - good condition, good structure
- He has many friends - because he is member of the visualization
- excelent whistler - It was meant to Sheriff, but when Ray left Lisbon in hospital, He was whistling
- When Sofia is describing 'damage of the narcistic personality' camera focus on Stiles, but on the right is Ray Haffner.
- When Lisbon asks him, if he was ever been on the farm, he just avoids the answer

Sorry for my bad English. I tried to write clear. I'm from Czech Republic.

What do you think? :)

Just let me begin with stating that people in this forum are so damn stupid sometimes. It's really dumb saying that the list we know of is false due to the trailer to "Red Listed". That's not the case. This is another list, which Jane put up to any intruder that would come sneaking into his room in the CBI building. It's really obvious anyhow. We've all seen the episode we're Kirkland's guys grabs the information from Jane's office and handes it over to Kirkland, who drinks Bloody Mary looking at the material he's got. 

"Jane reveals that a list of fake Red John suspects he planted was stolen and the team realizes these men are in danger."

That is the description of the episode. People on this list is probably people we've seen before, possibly Hightower. My uneducated guess is that Kirkland, who's been looking for Red John for years for his own reasons, finds out about this and decides to torture Patrick to find out the real list of seven. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxJfLgxkyWw

I think Ray Haffner is Red John. He's not too suspicious and not too obvious. He has the right looks and age, he is a member of Visualize and he's a real charmer. But I'm not sure. My tip to all you guys out there is to not focus on details, i.e. RED HERRINGS. Heller is probably trowing all sorts of herrings at us right now. 

Be well. 

(Posting from another account since it won't seem to let me submit a new theory after my original one - is this a bug?)

In a previous theory about the 6x2 pigeon lady, I believe someone mentioned there were 7 pigeons and one flew away.

I
didn't rewatch 6x2 but I made sure to pay close attention to the birds
in 6x3. Jane is feeding the swans, and there are 3 close ups. The first
is when he arrives at the crime scene. They show 7 swans. The second is
when he returns to the crime scene, and they show 7 swans again. But a
few seconds after that, they show 6 swans swimming together. Perhaps this symbolizes that Partridge is dead, so 6 suspects left.

But
in the last scene with McAllister in 6x3, a lone bird flies out of
nowhere and hits him in the face. "Didn't see that coming." If Partridge
is indeed RJ, the seven swans to six symbolizes his "death", but his
return at the end is foreshadowed by the one bird that everyone thought
was gone hitting you in the face, the bird that no one will see coming.

I
also was staring at McAllister's hands as he pulled Jane up on the
roof. No ring, people. (Remember the RJ teacup scene where he had a ring
on his left hand.) And to those who are saying that McAllister's pigeon
phobia suggests he is RJ...I think RJ probably loves pigeons. The
pigeons were in the Partridge house the entire time RJ was hiding out
there. RJ wasn't scared off by the pigeons; he never intended to kill
Lisbon to begin with; he just wanted to send her back to Jane with his
mark on her.

I see so many parallels with Red Dragon now (refer
to my previous post on Partridge). New one: Jane's description of RJ
describes a slight speech impediment. In Red Dragon, someone addresses
the serial killer thus:


"I can hear that you've had...







some kind of soft palate repair.







But I understand you fine

because you speak very well" (implying she was expecting a speech impediment).

Partridge is coming back, I can almost smell it.