I never understood and still do not understand how anyone, especially Patrick Jane, could suspect McAllister and Smith as being Red John. There is nothing of Red John's characteristics to be found in any of them. This two makes one believe that the list of 7 suspects may not be the real thing after all. As for the other suspects: Haffner's voice is too dark to resemble Red John's voice, Stiles is too old, Bertram is too old and too bald and Partridge appears to be too dead ... So that leaves only one suspect left (assuming that the list is not fake).
Kirkland is not intrested to know who Red John is (the murder of Red John's henchman in the hospital without asking about Red John proves that), he's just intrested in knowing exactly how much Patrick Jane knows.
Beside Patrick Jane, there's only two other characters who have great influence on other people: Stiles and Kirkland.
