Now many will criticize this theory and while i can understand the skepticism, as well as the doubts in the logic i will use, just bear with me and in the end honestly tell me this is not possible. 

Patrick Jane's is the one and original Red John. 

In the pilot episode, Jane was on television claiming with a smirk that R.J is a sad, lonely little man and in reality Jane is the one and the same. He killed his wife because she figured out he was behind the recent killings of the 8 women and in the adrenaline rush he killed his daughter. His only way out is to portray another of Red John killings.

 Television show or not, police do not use a television psychic to find serial killers so i assume Jane made himself part of the investigation by offering his services and that's how he prevented himself from ever getting caught. However, the traumatic expierence of it all caused a severe mental breakdown or possibly a coma in which Jane remains in today.


 The character's we see in the show are likely members of the audience during his shows, medical personnel when he was found, as well as reporters, detectives etc during the R.J investigation.

Jane paints this RED JOHN villain as some unknown person whom while he claims to hate and want to kill him, is amused and fascinated at the same time. I know if someone killed my wife, i would never smile and laugh at anything the man that killed her did.

It's funny how when all the people associated with Red John begin to tell Jane about R.J they end up dieing, decide not to tell him, or give him a half-baked clue which he takes off and running with (lorelei in season 5).

Ever notice how many near-death expierences Jane has yet never gets killed or maimed? Sure he has been shot, went blind for a day, survived an explosion but a trained homeland security agent gets put down like a dog? 

Also, every time Jane gets closer or starts to delve into too many consequitive cases not involving R.J , the killer himself finds away to attract Jane's focus ?

I would like to point out his unnatural ability to manipulate people into doing what he wants (a power claimed to be possessed by R.J as well)

He wears the same outfits, and for most of the show he would be seen going home and sleeping in the very room his wife and child were murdered.

Jane wins 300,000 dollars at a casino and just gives it away? The man who was once so money hungry he would lie to clients and scam them for money? 

I think there is a chance at the end of the season that he could possibly wake up and confess to killing those women.  

Not likely the true outcome but hey the identity gets revealed this sunday , might as well have fun with it. 

If you didnt watch it yet:


EXTENDED PROMO 00:30 Sec.

http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/11/the-mentalist-episode-608-red-john_18.html

Cheers Folks!

when loreli read the letter from redjohn there was a part were he wrote till u catch me or i catch u, then said he was going to start killing again and more often starting with a happy memory.i thought why would he say till i catch you, he could kill jane anytime. the happy memory lead jane to his his physciatrist and the clue to the catch u line,might have been the fear of of heights she commented on.then  mcallister saved jane on the roof which could  be looked at as catching him

I did not want it to be McAllister, and I'm not necessarily convinced from the promo shots that he is 100% Red John...but Reede Smith said that Red John is a member of Tyger Tyger right? So that means that he MUST have that tattoo, which leaves us with the three suspects Bertram, Smith, and McAllister. Smith, I'm sure is not Red John...so that leaves Bertram and McAllister..it's one of the two. Unless Red John does not have the Tyger Tyger tattoo of course......I hope nobody has brought this up yet, or else sorry =P. Can't wait for the reveal though!

The wine locker rental Bertram enters was under the name of "Mr. Thomas."  It was filled with wine. 

Thomas McAllister is the Sheriff of Napa County, the heart of wine country.

Sounds like McAllister could very well end up being Red John.  In addition, if he brought a bomb to Jane's house, Red John would likely use the chaos to fake his own death as part of his plan.

I hate to say it, but after his creepy effort to get Van Pelt into his car in the second episode of this show, Sheriff McAllister may well turn out to be Red John.

Now up to this point i could never make an educated guess on who is Red John without sufficient evidence and since November 24th 2013 will in fact reveal the identity of the man we spent 5 years waiting to meet, i think now is a good a time as any. Now we all watched the explosion and how Stiles, Haffner and McAllister are all 3 supposedly "Dead" , although there was no real physical evidence aside from that one foot found in the wreckage which could simply mean 1 or 2 of the three survived and the other was disembodied probably by a bomb placed on them by My main suspect. In this case , Bret Stiles was the walking bomb as McAllister and Haffner were sitting directly next to him on both sides during Jane's interrogation. He smelled of pine, nails and earth as described in Season 1 finale, this could easily be the smell of a Cop whom patrols near alot of woods and acres of lands as seen in his first appearence in season 1. He also fits the age profile of a man whom murdered 30 years ago, seems to get angry around Jane when Jane makes his quirky statements which is one of the few things that got Jane's wife and child killed. Also , he could move about the streets and buildings without being recognized because he isn't a well known person outside of his jurisdiction. And who would ever suspect a mass murdering serial killer is a sheriff of a backwater town? Now i think 30 years ago something must of happened with Bertrum that resulted in a death, Red John must of found out or was the first reporting officer (could be possible) and realized a potential follower and thus Red John takes credit for a murder bertrum committed. We can see that the heads of CBI were taking off little by little to make way for Gale Bertrum to assume command the second Jane started getting too close. Now if Bertrum was R.J why would he purposely make Jane's job alot easier by hiding in plain sight knowing even one small move could make Jane suspicious? I think Bertrum was put in his position to be a decoy and was told to split the second Jane figured it out (hence the get out of town stock he had in storage unit). So in summary, My guess is Sheriff Thomas McAllister is THE RED JOHN, all the clues fit, he's in law enforcement, he
s about 6ft, he has means, motive, access and above all We DON'T know where he currently is (same for either haffner or stiles). Let me know what you think

First off, I really don't think it can be as straight forward as being Bertram. 

The show has always been based on unexpected twists and Jane's genius in reading people and working them out. 

So far, the 7 suspects have been whittled down by more traditional "evidence" which is what the rest of the CBI
team usually operate on. 

Kirkland and Partridge removed themselves from the list. 

And then we went from 5 to 3 with Jane finding out about the tattoo. This was more about lucky timing than brilliance.

And then Smith turned himself in to supposedly reveal Bertram as Red John.

So there must be another twist in store. 

Since we've been told we can "trust the list", it still leaves Stiles, Haffner, and McAllister.

Yes, these three have already been pronounced dead, but it's not as concrete as Partirdge's death. 

I believe Red John does have the three dots on his arm, because PJ has said in the past he intuitively knows if it's 
Red John that made the kill.

So if the private investigator that told PJ on her death bed about the tattoo's wasn't killed by Red John, PJ would
have suspected something was out. 

I believe that when McAllister revealed his tattoo, and then said to PJ, "it's not what you think, I'm not Red John", 
that was the moment PJ worked it out. As a master mentalist, he caught RJ in a moment of weakness, and 
knew he was lying. 

Now, when Bertram went to kill PJ in the hospital I believe he was under instructions from either RJ or Tyger Tyger
to kill him. 

Possibly RJ is high up or even the leader of Tyger Tyger. 

When he failed, he knew he could be the main RJ suspect, so he began running. 

The reason PJ put out the media report that Bertram was RJ was the ace up his sleeve. 

He knew RJ could not live with the knowledge that PJ thought he'd caught him. His ego would be too big for this
to happen, so he knew that RJ would reveal himself to let PJ know he'd been defeated. 

That's what he meant when he said he was "letting go".

So those are the reasons I think it's McAllister. The other reason is when RJ is showed on the preview for the next episode
it looks like either Bertram or McAllister. It doesn't look like anyone else. 

And because I don't believe it is Bertram , it must be McAllister. Jane would have never put out the media release because he wants his revenge, he doesn't want RJ locked up) 

And just a few final points. 

Out of the 7 suspects, 6 of them have shown flashes of their dark sides. The real RJ would likely have a very convincing
"act" so nobody could detect his true nature. McAllister has never seemed over intelligent or egotistical. He also seems fairly friendly and a fairly capable Sherif. This is the perfect cover so people would never even think that he could be a serial killer. 

Also, some people have mentioned that he would not be handsome or charismatic enough to seduce a beautiful women like Lorelie. 

When he's acting as his true self though, he's a highly intelligent, powerful figure. One who can lead men and manipulate people at will. 

This type of power would be extremely attractive to women, especially ones like Lorelie who are a little lost. So I don't believe his lack of traditional good looks would account for him being unable to woo her. 

Remember that we haven't seen him acting as his true self as yet! 

So that's my theory. Love to hear your thoughts. Also, apologies if some of these points have already been mentioned!