Let me start by saying, that i really hoped that someone apart from the list of 7 is red john. i hoped since the first time he appeared, that it is going to be him. he would fit the role perfectly. not only he would fit the descriptions of his blind ex girl, but also he is smart, good looking and charming enough to seduce anyone he wants.

i am talking about walter mashburn! 

the way acts in front of jane, theresa and the other cbi agents, the way he talks, the way he makes macabre jokes about being a possible suspect and so on. 

something that is still on my mind, is when jane asks him if he would do anything for a thrill, and he relies that he would. and jokes around that maybe he even can pull of a murder and not being caught.

he is rich, so he has money, and money means power. power which enables him to pull of anything he likes. and if you have money and power, you have anything you like. so it might get a bit boring, so why not being red john just out of fun???

also what makes him my favorite, is that he had a sexual thing going on with lisbon. maybe his type is more kind of a red head, but lisbon is the capital of portugal, and red is a dominant color in portugals flag (i know this seems too far away). but since i like him to be it, i come up with some unrealistic things. but since he has a secret crush for her, he does not kill her as he killed patridge. 

the sexual tension also brings haffner in play i know, but did you see the youtube video of that reporter who watched the next episode already? he says 2 important things: someone returns we thought is long gone (mashburn is not dead, but maybe long gone just means long gone out of sight of the plot). and second, he says lisbon trust someone, and makes a mistake, since she should not trust him. well since he is not on the list, and lisbon trusts the list, and since the got private, maybe out of desperation she trusts him and that might be a mistake since he is red john.

here is the video again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwjaSWWSD60

but i really trust heller as he said, that we can trust the list. and in my opinion 4 out of 7 would be great as red john. reede smith is too young and fat, also the actor is born in 76 or so, bertram is too tall and his voice is totally of. stiles is way to old and has his role in being strongly related to red john, maybe his father or mentor, also we should not rule out a relationship with jane and van pelt. so i think he has his part in the show, so he will not be red john. 

patridge was great. the thing pointing to him is that he dies first, so attention is off of him and his voice. but i think he is dead for sure. we don´t see the corpse, but i think that jane has definately checked out his dead body since he was on the list. also he seems to be to young in the series, looks like a mid 30 year old man, even though the age of the actor would fit. also the actor said, that he is done and out of the show for real. also jane always beats him in any debate, i don´t think red john would let that happen.
haffner is a cool guy, but to be honest, there is nothing pointing at him in my opinion, just his thing with lisbon and visualize. but i think that red john did not risk working too close to jane at any point. also jane gets him and his team often on the wrong foot when he was in cbi. as you can see from red johns reaction as he did this video with lorelei (either i catch you or you catch me), he seems to be easily upset about being defeated by jane and can not control his cool for such a long time span.

so kirkland was my go to guy from the list. he is a cop version with much less money of walter masburn. his voice and appearance would fit totally with that one of red john. but he is dead, so that set me off. but he has a twin michael, who is portrayed to be the weaker twin. that might also explain the slightly softer voice of red john compared to krikland. so one of the twins still might be red john or very close to him. we should not rule that out.

--> here i like to bring in my favorite mashburn. in my opinion he looks simmilar to kirkland. so maybe the theory with face change with operation might be true in the end. everything else would match. the voice not so much, but you can train and fake that.



but i think the most matching part is thomas mcalister. he is sheriff, he is marked, so that would fit. he has to body and height that rosalind describes. of course he has less hair, but that is normal for an aging man. 
well why do i think it is him.
-he is present from the beginning
-his voice fits or at least is not far away from red johns
-age and physical appearance + hight fits, well the hair not so much, but that can be normal for an aging man.
-out of all suspects from the list, every time he speaks with jane, i get the feeling something might happen but both stay careful and cool, and jane never made it too obvious that he suspects him as red john, so mcalister never has to loose his cool
-marked, sheriff mark and tattoo
-i could go on for a while

but lets face some more important facts. from an episode we know that red john walks kind of funny somtimes (don´t remember the episode, but also visible where he saves jane from copycat, and walks strangely down the stairs, pushing one leg after the other) and also their walk in general seems to be identical. look at some episodes and compare their walk.

another episode where one of red johns helpers (woman) is caught and dies on her way to the cell, and you see someone walking at the end of the hall. she smile at him. looks like a sheriff and again the walk seems to match red johns and mcalisters.



one last argument in favor of mcalister, and i think this one is huge: first recall 2 things heller said in an interview. a) at the end of 6x1 you get a clue, but will not be able to use it until episode 7 or 8.
and b) he many times says it is like looking for waldo. so you have to pay attention to the details and really search for waldo.

--> i think the clue are the pigeons at the end of episode 1!!! than in episode 2 you see this woman with the rings and that looks like fat girl version of patridge and she is feeding pigeons.!!!! so that is the clue in my opinion, but you can not use it yet, since BP is dead, and they show it only for some seconds.

here is the video. look again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=772FU_fAjj4

this really looks like BP, watch, rings and so on, but that is not possible. i think this is to distract us, so we can not find waldo!!!! it only shows you the direction where you have to look. look at the background. there you will se a man. did you find waldo???
start looking from  00:51 behind lisbon. look how he looks like. and how he walks. seems to be the sheriff without his hat, notice the sidebacks??? where his gun and maybe walky talky is??? 

at 01:05 you see him again, how he pulls his foot strangely behind the other!!!!!
that is typical mcalister and red john style of walking. what is he doing here. should be in nappa valley right? for me this is what find waldo means!