Ok, here's the deal. On this site, today alone, Sheriff McCalister has surged ahead to the 4th spot in theory popularity. Makes sense. He fits the bill in many ways.
But I can honestly say that most of the theories on here , my previous one included, are way too detailed and the theorists have obviously read too much into every clue, non- clue, and random piece of dialogue. Many of you should be mystery writers yourselves. I've found the theories to be as entertaining and plausible as the show itself, sometimes more so.
But I can say that I looked away from the show to find the biggest clue yet on the identity of Red John. Rather than focus on characters, I focused on actors. Since Sheriff McCalister had been the favorite candidate lately, I decided to look up Xander Berkeley and found his Wikipedia page. Sure enough, as one of many roles in his long, impressive career, he had an entry that looked just like this:
The Mentalist (2008-2013, 3 episodes) Sheriff MCalister / Red John.
I then proceeded to look at the Wikipedia page of the other actors, all suspects on the list of 7. None of the others had "Red John" mentioned next to their primary character name for their Mentalist mention. I also noted that about this time, the Whoisredjohn.com web site was down, for a while. I got home from work a few hours after my initial discovery and noted that Xander Berkeley's Wikipedia page still credited him as " Sheriff McCalister / Red John." But then I checked it 2 hours later and the Red John reference was GONE!
I wouldn't be surprised if the reason this web site was down today is that it was hacked/attacked by CBS to put the brakes somewhat on the Sheriff as Red John speculation while at the same time they had people twisting arms to "fix" the Xander Berkeley Wikipedia page, since it have it away.
