he slept with lisbon.

It wasn't red john who had the tattoo, that was probably one  of his assassins who did the killing like agent smith .she never said it was red john .Jane said that to Lisbon. red john is a master mind a man of art and mystery . he does things clean  not messy. the very same thing jane said to WALTER MASHBURN  "you have a DIRTH PHOBIA" . think about it . WALTER also mentioned to Jane in that same episode "YOUR KNOW YOU DISSAPOINT ME" observe the manner and facial expression when he was telling him that as if its a teacher or parent speaking to a student/child. A BIG clue is that RJ always refer to Jane as Patrick he never calls him by "JANE". Every other person always call him JANE or MR JANE but not so WITH WALTER MASHBURN , he calls him by his first name ''PATRICK!"  jus AS RJ do. THAT  killing with the PI woman  was two messy to be RED JOHN , NO art and unfinished, "NOT clean at all" when red john does a murder he like it to be known (receive an audience ) and in a form of mystery, the death must speak out for it self,it  must be a work well planned and well done .RJ  likes art. A better suspect will be WALTER MASHBURN. 
                                              ALWAYS KEEP THAT IN MIND ABOUT  RJ

Walter Mashburn just seems so jovial and charming all the time, someone who could be friends with Patrick. So that makes him the least obvious, and in my book that means he's Red John! :-P

Also this was bugging me...In The Red Tattoo episode, after Patrick outs Kira, Cho asks her, "Who hired you? Was it Visualize?" She just says "Uh yeah." She didn't out Visualize as the group that hired her, she just agreed with what Cho said. Later, when she answered her door, she said, "Oh Hi" in a way that showed she already knew the person. So when Patrick arrived at the crime scene and asked her "who did this to you?" why did she give him a description, that is, the tattoo? She could have just told him a name. The killer left her alive and told her to only tell Patrick that "...he had a tattoo on his left arm" while depicting it in her own blood. It was Red John who used the PI, not to gain intel at the CBI, but as part of his cat and mouse game with Patrick -- so he could give him the new tattoo clue. 

Women are the solution to this, which one of the suspects are capable of totally charming women and making them fall for him?

Absolutely not Partridge(creepy), Reede Smith(too fat). Probably not McAllister(too old, redneck), Kirkland (slimy), Haffner(no charm, stupid)

Brett Stiles and Gale Bertram could be charming but a bit too old to really pick up chicks all over.

So the list is fake, you need to open your eyes and find the real charmer in this series. Who even managed to get Lisbon into bed... 

Case closed:

* "The Great Red Dragon" is the episode in which Red John's identity is revealed.

* Jordan Harper is the writer of this episode. Harpers first episode as writer on The Mentalist was
"Redline" - the episode where Walter Mashburn was introduced for the first time.

Jordan Harper  is the one picking up his storyline ofc and leading us to the revelation that:

RJ = HE IS MAshburn

I admit it was a bit of cheating checking out who was the writer and putting it together that way.

MAX WINTER OR WALTER MASHBURN FOR SURE  is  RED JOHN. RED JOHN SHADOW IN SEASON 1
REPRESENTS HIS  " SPIRIT" . RED JOHN  PLAYING THE ROLE
AS THE GRIM REAPER IN SEASON 2 WHEN HE HELPED JANE AND MENTION THE TYGER TYGER 
REPRESENTS HIS  "SOUL/MIND" AND IN SEASON 3 HE WAS 
PRESENTED IN  " BODY/FLESH"  FOR THE 1ST TIME IN THE
PICTURE . SO PUT IT TOGETHER ( SPIRIT,SOUL and BODY): THIS IS THE MANNER IN
WHICH  GOD MADE MAN , REMEMBER THE CLUE  ''HE IS MAN"  AND THE POEM TYGER TYGER
SPEAKS  OF GOD DIVINITY IN THE CREATION OF THE TYGER AND WHICH ALSO GOES
TOGETHER WITH A NEXT POEM THE LAMB . THEY CANT DO WITH OUT EACH OTHER, THERE
CO-EXSISTANCE IS WHAT KEEPS THE BALANCE IN LIFE. HENCE  JANE THE
"LAMB'' AND  RED JOHN THE "TYGER" .THEY NEED EACH OTHER TO
KEEP BALANCE AND ORDER IN THE LIFE CYCLE. SO THE CLUE TO WHO RED JOHN IS ? WELL
ITS UP TO YOU BUT HIS 1ST APPEARENCE WAS SOMEWHERE IN SEASON 3. HE IS DEFINITLY
ONE OF THE CHARACTERS PRESENTED IN SEASON 3.  MY BEST BET AN I HAVE MY FINDINS FOR SAYING SO
IS THAT  'RJ' IS EITHER  WALTER MASHBURN OR  MAX WINTER , ONE
OUT OF THOSE TWO. THEY WERE THE ONLY OTHER TWO MENTALIST REVEALED IN THE SHOW
APART FROM JANE! WATCH AN U WILL SEE. BRUNO CLUE  MENTIONING THAT RJ "LIKES THE COLD"
WHAT HE IS TELLING YOU IS THAT WINTER IS THE SEASON OF THE COLD. SO IT COULD
MEAN TWO THINGS THAT  MAX WINTER MAY BE
RED JOHN OR THAT THE SEASON IN WHICH WINTER ACTED WAS SEASON 3 AS A RESULT  THE 
" WINTER SEASON" SO THEN IT WAS SEASON 3 THAT RED JOHN  MADE A FULL PHYSICAL APPEARANCE FOR THE  FIRST TIME IN THE SHOW. THIS IS THE SEASON
YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT FOR YOUR SUSPECTS. THANK YOU FOLKS!  WALTER MASHBURN IS MY BIGGEST SUSPECT. STUDY
HIM!

1.  Mashburn likes Lisbon.  Pursued Lisbon.  Slept with Lisbon in the Red Hot episode.  Lisbon has been spared to date by Red John

2.  Mashburn's first introduction in the show - the murder victim at the car dealership had a $30K Tiger painting at home given to her by Mashburn.  

3.  Mashburn has the wealth to have the influence/connections needed to be Red John.  For example, in the Redlines episode, he brags about having a lot of friends in the sherriff's department and the mayor's office.

4.  Lorelei Martins said she was surprised that Patrick and Red John didn't become great friends when they shook hands.  Of all the non-regular characters on the show, Patrick seems to come the closest to making friends with Mashburn.  Certainly closer than any of the 7 on the list except maybe Stiles.   

5.  Mashburn kinda looks like Kirkland.  Michael Kirkland?   

6.  Mashburn's first scene with Jane (lunch at the yacht club), Patrick makes a perceptive comment and Mashburn says "You're a psychic, aren't you?  You have this charlatan air about you."  How would he know that?  Why would he say that unless he already knew about Patrick.  

7.  Mashburn's speedboat is mostly red and is named "Eliminator."  He says something at the scene "I have no love of danger.  Nothing's dangerous if you think ahead.  If you plan it right, you can get away with . . .  I was going to say Murder.  But you know what I mean."  He makes several jokes about being the killer.