To my knowledge no one has pointed this out before.
Bruno Heller is the creator/parent of Red John.
Your not trying to catch Red John. Your trying to catch Bruno Heller.

In the last show "The Red Barn"

The
show starts out in Elliston, Ca. "Ellis" ton like Ellis in Ellis Mars.
There is no real town in California called "Elliston"

Heller likes playing with names like Pa "trick" Jane. He also did it with several other names.

This is another part of a bigger whole who is Red John:

http://mentalistlist.livejournal.com/152801.html