Who is Red John?

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List of seven

Thomas McAllister
Thomas McAllister
Reede Smith
Reede Smith
Ray Haffner
Ray Haffner
Gale Bertram
Gale Bertram
Brett Partridge
Brett Partridge
Bret Stiles
Bret Stiles
Bob Kirkland
Bob Kirkland

LATEST THEORIES

Theory #7360 • By pmucha
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I'm not sure any of the seven suspects is dead yet.

And Lorelei Martin is likely to be alive as well. How else could she record the tape with the suspect list before Jane even came up with the names?

Brett Partridge could have been Red John faking his own death. I mean, if you were Red John, and wanted to throw off Jane and Lisbon, what better way?

Or, as far as Bob Kirkland, how do we the twin working for Homeland wasn't really Michael, and Michael was the one who got killed? That way, Bob could still be Red John, despite was seemed like a pretty legit slaying. Also fits Homeland Kirkland asking Red John associates, Do you recognize me?

I mean, it CAN'T just be some process of elimination, where The Last Man Standing is Red John. Too pedestrian.

True, Heller said: " I can tell you it won’t be a sort of Ten Little Indians type of of set up,"

But how about instead of one faked death, we're going to get a whole bunch? They're all Red John associates, fitting the Seven Dragon theory thingy whatchamacallit Blake poem.

Maybe Bob Kirkland (not dead) will turn out to be the only one who is not a Red John associate, and turns up alive to be the one who actually catches Red John.

I'm just saying: This cross-off-the-checklist kind of plot isn't cool enough for a show that prides itself on twists and turns.

Somebody's coming back from the dead!

Jane is always tricking people with scams and stunts. Why not Red John? Hey, he already got Jane to kill a surrogate.

Oh, and what is Van Pelt's role in helping Red John? She leaked the suspect list, and Patridge supposedly gets killed. She was supposedly watching when Christina Frye got abducted by Red John. It might even be Red John's idea for her to marry Rigsby, so she's in touch with as much intel as possible? Who changed the fraternizing rules? Was that Gale Bertram?





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Okay, I'm reaching but a few things - anyone who challenged RJ on tv ends up dead. Not PJ though. This seems to indicate RJ wants PJ to one day know who he is, and I suspect they will be close. What has really happened to PJ's dad? Could he have had a sibling that hasn't been revealed. RJ has affection for PJ. Wants to prove to PJ how clever he or she is. VP will be involved somehow. Could I be any more vague? What do you think?

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Theory #7358 • By Marce
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On one side, our scripter  has not yet chosen who he is?. I guess the list is  a trick.
On the other side, RJ is someone in the CBI. Otherwise, why would Patrick be there? His main purpouse is to find RJ so  RJ is there.
The clue is on red hair...Rosalind and Grace...have been they dating  the same man? 
RJ is left handed . 
Lorelei is alive. The clue to the list of the seven is that RJ read it, and he made Lorelei read it. Remember her throat was not cut. We think she is dead, so we think she read that in the past. But, as she was never killed, RJ read Patrick's list and made Lorelei read it in the video. No one read Patrick's mind. If this is true, Lisbon is connnected to Red John.
I guess Rigsby could be RJ,On this site, there was a good theory talking about the Mentalist posters, the one about the mirror. And if you take a llok at it, it  say  it all. The killer is among the 5 ,in the CBI.

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Hello! First of all I don't think RJ is in the list. For numerous reasons I believe RJ isn't included.

Let's use our logic. Jane made a list of suspects, using all of his memory to remember everyone whom he has shaken hands with. There is no other person in the world that could know with whom Jane has shaken hands. Except of course totally crazy scenarios that Jane has had a chip implanted when sleeping and is being watched on every minute of his life the past many years. Also there are no psychics and no other magical powers are known to mankind. So, we conclude that either
a) Jane first watched the RJ video and then made the suspect list agree with RJ's
b) the video is fake, which means Jane could have instructed Martins to make this video naming those people

But why would Jane misdirect Lisbon and make her believe that Red John knows about which people he suspects? Maybe he doesn't fully trust her, or he trusts her but would rather keep her in the dark regarding who he believes RJ is, mainly for safety reasons (her safety -most notably).

Of course Jane would prefer that RJ doesn't know he suspects him. If I am a serial killer and I know that the police's mastermind suspects me, I may be more cautious etc, whereas If I believe that they suspect other people I may feel assured thus making myself prone to commiting more mistakes. So Jane feeding a fake list to Lisbon means that either he doesn't trust her, or because he hopes it gets leaked and RJ sees that PJ doesn't suspect him, thus making him feel relaxed and vulnerable for mistakes, or to pretect het from harm's way. (The latter doesn't seem to be the case, as most suspects seem to be up to something and Lisbon already got in trouble with them!)

From all the above it's obvious to me that the list is fake. First of all RJ cannot know who PJ shook hands with in his lifetime - that's a hard fact. The only logical explanation is that the video is part of Jane's plan, which apparently also includes misleading Lisbon. This opens the road for a finale full of suspense. While we make theories on those shady suspects, Jane is keeping the real suspect for himself, watching closely what he does and waiting to catch him.

Also, I get a strong feeling that RJ should be a strong character in the series. if he is someone of that list, then we simply don't know many things about the character and personality of those people, they are only briefly shown in the past 6 seasons! We haven't seen Bret Stiles for god knows how many episodes, Reede Smith, Ray Haffner, Sheriff have made very few appearnces in these years, same for the other guys. It wouldn't awe us if anyone of them was RJ. But it would simply be super amazing if a character that we see in every episode turns out to be RJ, crushing all appearances and thus providing an exciting finale to wrap up the series.

If, for example, Bruno could bridge the logical gaps keeping Rigsby from being RJ - IF he could provide logical explanations as to why this is a viable option, as to how he could kill those people in Mexico or how he could appear to speak as RJ in the phone while being physically close to PJ, how he could fit Rosalinda's description (maybe she lied) etc etc then that would make a fantastic, unexpected finale. To my mind it would be awesome if a person involved in every episode of the series turned out to be RJ, not some random appearances that occured in 5-10 episodes, but a main character that managed to go undetected while organizing everything in the shadows.. I know this doesn't seem possible to most of the people, to me maybe also, but nevertheless this is what I would like to see as a finale!!

P.S. I like those arguments about Rigsby liking red haired women, behaving strangely towards them, having the most innocent face in the series etc!
P.S.2 I say again, I don't know if there are any possibilities of such a theory holding up - all I say is that to my mind this would be one of the most amazing theories, should the writers manage to close the logical gaps.
My 3 cents
Peace

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First and foremost,  I
honestly have no clue who Red John is. 
There have been so many clues; however, most of them are subject to
various interpretations.  I prefer to
stay away from all of these clues because I don’t want to speculate on
something that could go multiple different ways.  Reading many of the theories on this site,
many people aren’t convinced of certain things. 
For example, is Partridge really dead? 
Do we trust the info on the psychiatrist’s recorder about Red John?  Is McAllister crossed off of the list of
suspects?  Is Red John a group of people
or just one person?

So, if we are to assume that Heller is being straight with
us about this list of 7 suspects, then that is really the only true fact that we
have.  The rest is interpretation and
speculation based on interpreted information that could have been easily
misinterpreted or purposely planted by Red John to mislead.

The one thing that has bothered me throughout the entire
show is the fact that Red John is always one step ahead of Jane and everyone
and everything for that matter.  Some of
RJ’s knowledge and actions seem almost impossible for him to know or do unless
he is some type of omnipotent being.  This
is what has troubled me the most.  So
this has led me to believe that RJ must have accomplices or that RJ is a group
of people.  However, I struggle with this
concept because the more people that know about something, the harder it is to
keep it a secret and maintain control.  Ben
Franklin said it best… “Three can keep a secret if two are dead.”

Now some new light has been shed on this Tiger, Tiger
concept.  This might help explain things
somewhat, but now I am speculating. 
Tiger, Tiger appears to be some sort of secret group within law
enforcement.  Perhaps it is a ring of
officials/politicians/cops/etc that will do bad things in the name of justice (planting
evidence and including killing others to keep their secret).  Or maybe they are just corrupt through and
through… though I don’t think so. 
Regardless, the Tiger, Tiger group could be how Red John is able to know
so much and accomplish so much.  Either
they work directly for Red John and know Red John, or it’s the opposite…  I think they have no idea who Red John is, but
Red John knows everything about them.  As
a result, perhaps Red John is able to manipulate certain information and even
manipulate certain actions from the Tiger, Tiger group.

He may even be a part of the Tiger, Tiger group.

This helps explain my dilemma that I have struggled with throughout
the entire series.  Red John is Red John
(not a group of people) and therefore, his identity is more easily concealed.  However, Red John is somehow able to
manipulate the Tiger, Tiger group into obtaining information and performing
certain actions on his behalf without them knowing it.  Because the Tiger, Tiger group does its own
illegal activities, this makes it easier for RJ to manipulate the group.  This explains how he is always one step
ahead.


Or perhaps Red John is a red herring.  A serial killer was invented by the Tiger,
Tiger group to cover up the elimination of certain people that they wanted dead
for whatever reason.  Though, I hope this
is not the case, and it does not make sense. 
If this were true, then Jane’s family would still be alive.  They were killed because Jane called Red John
out.  If Red John were a group of people,
the group would not have cared about this or taken it personal.

Why was Kirkland killed? 
What purpose did it serve?  I
presume the answer to this is simple… He knew about the Tiger, Tiger group and
therefore he knew too much and had to be eliminated.  I can’t think of any other purpose that would
have been served for them killing him.

One other thing that is bothering me.  At the end of season 5, RJ tells Jane he is
going to start killing again and with more frequency.  Assuming RJ is who killed Partridge… then why
did he specifically kill Partridge and where is this alleged increased
bodycount?

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Collection of thoughts.

Firstly Sheriff is the only suspect Patrick has given specific time to encounter and persay investigate. Well besides going to talk with Kirkland but I believe he had some other reasonings behind Kirkland and he knew Kirkland was not Red John but as we found out also after RJ. Saying this Sheriff is the only one Patrick has gone out of his way to put himself around and observe , I mean he went and took over his crime scene.

Now as I am sure you have read many theories on here and we all know there are all kinds of bones thrown at us each week. But we have to step back and ask a very important question. Who is the smartest person on the show? Who knows the most about Red John? Well Patrick of course! Bruno especially this season is throwing our eyes in so many different directions and we are so caught on certain things or certain people. Are we really observing the most important piece of the puzzle? JANE? What is Jane Doing? What can we draw from his actions and words? Are we so busy chasing pigeons or whistlers and guys that fit the exact descriptions or are we paying attention to the one who KNOWS the MOST?

After thinking on this I think there could possibly be more to Sheriff. For one again Jane has payed the most amount of attention to Sheriff. Think if all the other suspects and how creepy Bruno had made some of theyre appearences yet Jane almost looks past them. He skips over Partridge , he doesnt dwell on Bertram or Reede but who goes out of his way to get himself in direct contact with SHERIFF and to watch and observe him work.

Upon this we also saw some very key things about the sheriff. For one we learned he has a very keen and gifted investigated instince like JANE when observing a victim. Ahhh more than meets the eye. And then at first we have always gotten the idea the Sheriff did not care for Jane oh but the ENDING we see a different side of SHeriff than ever before. So we are tossed around and we think oh it cant be him he acts afraid of heights , but then hes on the roof . WAIT a minute. Well this could perhaps show he has the ability the DECIEVE. So I am not fully saying Sheriff is REd JOhn but I find him most interesting lately and he can be very easy to skip over. 

Also hes a very skilled hunter..... RJ left a pigs head in one of the episodes....

So whether or not my hunches are right. I encourage everyone pay attention to JANE the smartest and closets man to finding the real RJ. Can most of these other trails just be magican assistants with the purpose to leading us off into rabbit trails. Whats Janes paying attention to?

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According to Bruno Heller, Partridge's death, big clue in finding who Red John is.

http://i.imgur.com/DWzhzB5.jpg

The **first picture** is taken right after Van Pelt has finished setting up the gps tracking devices. And the **second picture** is taken at night, when Lisbon got the call to check on Partridge.

You can see in both pictures that only one subject was steady the whole time. That is Bret Stiles, S1 who was on "862 Laurel Rd San Francisco, CA".

Haffner/McAllister and Reede Smith were "In transit" in both time, so They coudn't be RJ. 
But Bertram is so close to the murder scene..

Why I think Stiles is Red John? Because Partridge is at that house in both pictures. That means he's being kept there by Red John before Van Pelt put the gps tracking. 

If Red John was with Partridge the whole time, waiting the night fall and preparing for Lisbon, then the only viable suspect is S1, which is Stiles. 

Knowing that Smith had a job to do that day, working for the FBI, it's understanding that he's S2 and S1 is Bret Stiles.

Your opinion on this? 

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