I believe Red John is AMOS VAN PELT, Grace Van
Pelt’s father, who used to be a famous football coach.



The two little issues which still can’t be
solved by the end of season 5 is: 1) why Lorelei told Jane he had already shaken
hands with Red John (Amos Van Pelt)?: this is probably because it happened in Jane’s
past, when he was a medium and used to meet many people and to be in the
spotlight. Jane did not know who was that person he
shook hands with.
2) How can a football coach have and head accomplice(s) who are CBI agent(s)? What is he giving in exchange ?
I think season 6 will reveal some bits of these 2
mysteries.

General evidences:


- mention of the religion, from episode 1, through
Grace. She comes from a religious family. We know the killer is deeply
religious as well (and even kills in a ceremonial way). Also, “John” is the name of
one of the four evangelists in the Christian religion.



- the story starts with the beginnings of Grace
as an agent of the CBI.

- word “cherry”, given as a clue by Bruno
Heller and part of many episodes’ titles of the season 5 : if we associate name
“Amos” + word “Cherry” on Internet, we learn it is the name of a current football
player in the US, from East Central University (ECU), Oklahoma. This university
is specialized in sport.


- “Tiger, tiger, burning, burning…”: players of
all teams of ECU belong to one “big” team : the Tigers of ECU. Also, a “Tigers”
banner is shown on episode 1.12, in the locker room of the football team under investigation.

- Red John has strong hands: American football
player



- “He is man” written by a victim on the wall
of a bathroom: it leads to the Heisman trophy, a famous award in college
football in the US.



- “Red John”: Grace Van Pelt has red hair so as
mentioned in a few forums, we can assume her father also has red hair.


- nickname “Roy Tagliaferro” leads to “Tolliver”
(after research on Internet), like the name of the family of the first episode.
Bruno Heller said the killer is father of a family, like Mr. Tolliver. Amos Van
Pelt is the father of a family.



- we know Red John is high infiltrated into the
CBI : what better accomplice can he have than his own daughter ? She doesn’t
know her father is using her (her computer codes and etc.) to get some information
and to keep distancing himself from Patrick Jane. I believe Gale Bertram is also a Red
John accomplice.


- Craig O'Laughlin knew Amos as he was his
coach (or coach of adversary team) when Craig was in college.

- Bob Kirkland could have been that n°1 suspect:
(clue “Cherry” would have worked too, as “Kirkland” is a brand of dried “cherries”).
I think this would be too obvious. He was sent to embody the serial killer and
cloud the audience. This is the “red herring” technique.


- in some ways, I feel Amos Van Pelt cares a lot about his daughter Grace and that she is his favourite, maybe because she looks
like him (red hair). This could give credence to the reason why Red John has a
friendship relation with Rosalind Harker (and why he doesn't kill her): she is red hair (as well as they both like classical
music).


So here was the theory I share. I have to
confess: I am French but I watch the English version of The Mentalist, and I
first read the idea of Amos Van Pelt being Red John in a French forum (then I
investigated and found out some more evidence!). So congratulations to the work of
“Andrew 656”, who probably didn’t watch the season 5 as it hasn’t be aired in France
yet, but found the potential name of the killer a year ago! For more: http://the-mentalist.frenchboard.com/t2429-hypotheses-qui-est-red-john



Let’s see what season 6 reveals! Some elements
might be wrong, but I am sure the name of killer is the right one!

 

 


If this article is not published, then I'll be sure I'm right !