I've been reading your comments for a while and while I too hate this list, I think it's time we all gave up the nonsense and accepted the list of seven as true. Over the summer I rewatched all the seasons (as I guess most of us did) and came to a few conclusions that have been reinforced by the three episodes so far (as well as the previews for E4). What does this mean? Either I've watched way too much tv in my life or I'm following the writers path perfectly which means I'm totally wrong :(

My thoughts on the 7 so far:
1) Brett partridge is dead
2) bob kirkland is trying to kill red John for his own reasons, believes the fake list he had his homeland security buddies steal from Patrick is the real list and is killing off all the suspects to make sure he gets red John
3) bret stiles is too old, wouldn't harm a fly according to Patrick, seemed friendly enough with Patrick (yes there is the scene with Hightower I know) from the start and really seems to be a third wheel to the red John - Patrick dynamic
4) Reede smith doesn't have control of his temper, does not fit the physical description provided by multiple sources, etc.
5) Gale Bertram is methodical, an emotional loner, recites the poem, etc but like smith doesn't really fit the description and, if we are going to take heller at his word (never a good idea) wasn't introduced until the third season premier. Not ruling him out but marking him as least likely of the three front runners for me.
6) ray haffner fits everything we know or suspect so far. Might have been at the farm, best matches the physical description, was in the FBI and CBI so connections would abound, seemed to be charismatic enough to both lead a CBI team and have Bertram think he could handle Patrick. Might have let Patrick break up his team to watch him work. Still seems too crammed down our throat especially the hospital bed scene with Lisbon, and if hes leaving Lisbon alive as a potential crutch for Patrick (always worried about her) or test for his loyalty (kill her and we can be friends) then why try and sway her to come work for him and leave Patrick?
7) Tom Mcallister - has been my front runner from the start. Others have championed his cause better than I could, fits description well enough, has been there from the start, etc. oh wait and now we have the hunter quotes and the pigeon issue "get it off me...hate those things." almost feels like he's being fed to us but in every scene/episode he's been in, doesn't he seem to hang back ala Waldo and let others do things. No guarantees but like I said he's my front runner and I'm sticking with him...thoughts?

First, I will write an observation that made recently. When RJ paints the smiley face when he kills, he does so with 3 fingers, and the outline of the face looks like an mirrored 6. So it is RJ's way of embedding "666" in every kill. On the first episode of season 6, 666 was written on the wall as well as the pentagram. I think this ties well with the great theory detailing how RJ is attached to the works of William Blake.

Now, regarding the latest episode, I am starting to believe that McAllister might be RJ. I don't know if that is where Bruno Heller is steering our minds, but I think I am starting to see him as RJ. Now let's examine the facts:

1- The person who presumably killed Partridge and presented himself as J. Roth fears birds. Also, episode 2 was titled "black winged red bird", which might be a clue to who RJ really is. 

2- He has an acute sense of smell, shown when he knew that the dead man was a Pizza delivery guy by the smell of oregano. RJ has a smell fetish as demonstrated by the fake RJ when he detailed the smell of PJ's wife and daughter.

3- McAllister said" duck-pond killer case" which shows what he noticed the most about the pond, birds.

4- Fear of birds confirmed on the rooftop.

5- McAllister voice. I am not sure about his voice, but it seemed to me close to RJ's voice.

RJ might be McAllister, or McAllister might be a bait to distract us from the clues that point to the real RJ. However, for me, I would be disappointed if the real RJ was McAllister.

Also, a few questions about the promo of next week's episode:

1- Is the list with Kirkland the same as the one with the 7 suspects by PJ?

2- Was Lorelei Martin alive when Kirkland showed her body to PJ? I am thinking about this since last season because Kirkland infiltrated PJ's room after Lorelei was shown as if she was killed by RJ. If she was really killed at that time, then Kirkland apparently doesn't work for RJ since he won't be torturing PJ for the list in the next episode. However, if Lorelei was alive by the time of Kirkland infiltration, then the list of 7 is no longer valid, and Kirkland wants the real list of suspects from PJ. Heller didn't say that the list is the real one, he just said that the real RJ is among the suspects on the list.

I hope we don't have a bunch of people saying its McAllister cuz he's afraid of birds or pigeons.

That's WAY TOO OBVIOUS!

Biggest red herring in TV history, or the real deal?

End of 6x3, bird flys in front of McAllister and scares the shit out of him. He says "Didn't see that coming". 

I didn't want to believe the pidgin theory, but damnit, might be true. 

Here I am for my last theory.
After I watch ep.6x03 I finally know who Red John is!
it's Sheriff Thomas "Tom" McAllister, I'm 100% sure.
After I've watched this episode I know I was right about RJ's phobia;
This is my previous theory about it:
http://www.whoisredjohn.com/See-a-theory-Red-John/5302
I was wrong about pointing the finger on Haffner, but I was right about the pigeons.

And this is my previous theory about McAllister. Obviously now he is my main (and only) suspect! :D
http://www.whoisredjohn.com/See-a-theory-Red-John/3578

So, that's all! I can't wait to see the great performance of Xander Berkeley as Red John: he will be amazing!

Argh!! 

After leading us to believe McAllister was afraid of heights twice in this episode and hence Red John, he then saves Jane's life by climbing on to the roof with ease. Just as we breathe a sigh of relief, a pigeon flies into the roof of the bell tower and scares the life out of him! Is this what stopped Red John from killing Lisbon? The presence of pigeons in the house?

Is Red John's phobia birds?

Bruno Heller - you are an amazing director for all the details! Thank you for this wonderful show!



(PS, I'm adamant it's Partridge nonetheless but I love that we are being screwed with!)

Let's not forget what Jane taught us, Occam's Razor. The simplest solution is usually the correct one.

If first of all we assume that the list of 7 is correct, as Heller has confirmed this in his interviews. We can move on from there. We can go through the process of elimination by matching descriptions given by the Rosalind Harker, and the latest physical description provided by Sophie Miller. 

Since we are given to understand Red John (Jay Roth) is middle aged, we can eliminate Bret Styiles.

Now, looking at Red John's build we can eliminate Reede Smith, as he his too obese to match the description.

I believe we can now safely say have successfully eliminated two of the seven suspects.

Now our next assumption is going to be to believe what Lennon told us during his die moments were true. We know that Lennon has met and seen Red John in person. But when Bob Kirkland asked Lennon “Do you recognize me?” Lennon replied no. Using this we can eliminate Bob Kirkland from a suspect as Red John.

Moving on to the more difficult suspects. Gale Bertram. This is a rather shaky and circumstantial evidence to use, but bare with me. We were told Red John has short straight hair. Whereas Bertram is bald. Using this, albeit unsatisfying, we can cross Bertram off from our list.

We have reduced our suspect list from seven to three: Brett Partridge, Ray Haffner, and Sheriff Thomas McAllistar.

On to our more dangerous conjecture, we have to believe Heller’s word, and the story up till now, and assume that Brett Partridge is dead. Please understand that this is no more believable to me as it is to you, since many of us are saying he could actually be alive since Partridge’s throat was not slit. And up till now we observed and believed that Red John murders his suspects by first slitting their throats and then carve their body afterwards.  

Now our Red John suspect has been narrowed down to just two: Ray Haffner and Thomas McAllistar.

At the moment, either of these suspects could be Red John, and we have not been given enough facts or evidence to eliminate either one. At a time like this all we have is our intuition. Let’s go back to season one. Out of all seven suspects, the only suspects introduced to the audience were McAllistar, and Partridge. Partridge has always been the number one suspect in this site up until his “death”. Leaving us only McAllistar from season one. Of course, there was that creepy encounter between Van Pelt, and McAllistar. But aside from that, let’s ask ourselves why a famous actor (Xander Berkeley) was used to portray a lowly town sheriff in the very beginning of the show. I cannot think of an answer, except for Heller’s plan to reintroduce the sheriff again in season 6. This stands out slightly to me, and makes me believe McAllistar is the “more likely” candidate for Red John.

For a summary of what we have determined here. We have confidently eliminated Bret Stiles, Reede Smith, and Bob Kirkland by carefully using the evidence provided to us by Heller, and assumed it to be correct. Afterwards we removed Gale Bertram by looking at the physical description for Red John for which he did not qualify. And then we had to eliminate our most promising suspect, Brett Partridge, because we are given to believe that he is dead. Now lastly, although we could not eliminate either Haffner or McAllistar from our list. We used reasoning to determine the more likely suspect, which is Sheriff Thomas McAllistar.

Possibilities I chose to exclude:
Although it may look like there is some kind of alliance between McAllistar, Bertram, and Smith. I do not believe it to be greatly significant as of S6 Ep 2, because the bits of conversation that was provided was too circumstantial to make any speculation. The other theory which is highly regarded is Red John is more than one person because of references to the Great Red Dragon. References from other literature are really not my forte, and I chose to leave it out of the theory.

Thanks for the read, only a more episodes to go!