Okay here I'm gonna give my two cents worth. Obviously it's just a theory.

Anyone else find it weird about the whole thing behind Partridge's death? They haven't even
shown the body or validated that it's him through an autopsy. We haven't seen it. And it is implied that neither Jane or Lisbon has seen the body since then too. For all we
know, they were just told that they found his ID beside a mutilated body. And Jane was stupid enough to wipe the blood off her face before they could've used it to identify whether it was really Partridge.
If there is a "tyger tyger" organization within the ranks of police and agents, it
would've been so easy to cover up this ruse because it was Red John's plan. I still think Partridge is
Red John. Heller hasn't come out and said that Partridge is officially
out of the running. He just said that it was Red John's decision to kill
Partridge. And that there's a good reason for it. If Partridge IS Red
John of course there's a good reason for him to seem like he was
"killed" to cause a diversion in Jane's plans. And most importantly for us to feel like he's out of the running just for that added suspense for the final revelation. And if you think about it, all the clues still lead to him: Harker and Sophie's physical and behavioral descriptions of him (him being a middle aged man which eliminates Bertram, Stiles and McAllister effectively), the creators saying we've seen him in the show before season 4 (hence eliminating Reede and Kirkland.)

I do have a nagging feeling that Red John is related to Bret Stiles. Like maybe he's an illegitimate son (would explain his messed up psychopathic nature if he did grow up with a single, perhaps alcoholic mother) who found his Dad after years, maybe when he was just starting to kill people in his teens (hence the Barn) who took him into his ranks (Visualize) and taught him the necessary skills for brainwashing. That would explain why Stiles may know so much about Red John but refuses to reveal anything, because it's his son. Maybe Bret Partridge was really called Bret Stiles Junior but because his Dad was never around growing up, he took up a different moniker through that anger not be associated with him at that time. A moniker in the name of the painting (A brace of Partridge) of his favourite Poet - Edward Blake, who also wrote "tyger tyger" whilst still keeping the first name Bret. Lol. What are the chances? Oh well, one can speculate.

What do you all think?