I have noticed that everyone is focusing on theories as to how RJ knew the list before Patrick, so I thought that I would give it a shot. There are some really great theories out there but most of them are very complicated so I thought I would try an easy route to the same destination. I just hope that I can explain it as easily as I came up with this theory. Okay, here it goes....

Six of the suspects have only one degree of seperation from RJ. In other words, all 6 are directly connected to RJ in some way. Let me explain. RJ was a member of Visualize and he knows that Patrick knew this so Stiles was an easy guess. Haffner was a long time member and both PJ and RJ knew that so he goes on the list. Members of Tiger are some way connected to RJ so RJ assumed Patrick pick the ones that he had worked with in the past which would add Smith and McAllister to the list along with Bertram but it's been no secret that Bertram has been a suspect for some time so of course he would be on the list. Bob Kirkland's connection to RJ was his brother and he has been on a psychopathic search for Rj for years, killing no telling how many along the way. RJ had to have known this too. Since we don't know Partridges connection to RJ I can't connect him to him, but I don't really need to since I believe he is RJ.

So what I'm basically saying is that Red John gave Patrick every person that he was directly connected to in some way and Patrick came up with the list the same way. I also think that Patrick began a long con to catch RJ back on Season 5's finale when he was burning stuff in a trash. In other words, he already knew who RJ was before the list ever came into play.