SPOILER WARNING: This article contains heavy spoilers about the main plot of the series that you might not want to know. Continue at your own risk.
Jane's list
The Jane's List of Suspects is the central plot of the second half of Season 5 and the first part of Season 6 of The Mentalist.
The story of this list came from Season 5 episode 8, Red Sails In The Sunset, when Lorelei Martins inadvertently revealed to Jane that he already knows Red John and even has shaken hands with him, causing Jane to make a list of people he's sure to have shaken hands with since the murder of his wife and daughter, and start to narrow it down in order to discover the true identity of Red John.
The initial list, as seen in The Red Barn, began with 2,164 names, which were reduced to only 7 names in the Season 5 Finale Red John's Rules. The catch is that Red John himself knew the seven names of the list even before Patrick did, and used it to challenge Jane: "I'm (Red John) going to start killing again, often. Until you catch me, or I catch you".
The 7 names in the list are:
- Bret Stiles - Visualize leader.
- Gale Bertram - Director of the CBI.
- Ray Haffner - Former supervising agent at the CBI, and Jane's boss at the start of season 4.
- Reede Smith - FBI agent working in California.
- Bob Kirkland - Agent for Homeland Security and friend of FBI California Chief Alexa Shultz.
- Thomas McAllister - A sheriff who worked on a crime case with the CBI.
- Brett Partridge - Forensic investigator for the CBI that Jane refers to as "a ghoul".
The main goal of the first part of Season 6 is to find out who of these men is Red John and stop him before his victim count continues to increase.
Conception of the list[]
Black Cherry List[]
In this episode, the list appears for the first time while Jane elaborates it. Pages visible in the photo at the top of this article:
- Brett Partridge - CBI Forensics Department - Totally macabre - Handled RJ Cases
- Ellis Mars - Bumbling sort - "PSYCHIC" - Todd Johnson investigation
- Dean Harken - Agent - Bio Tech facility - Red Hair
- Jason Cooper - Second in command at Visualize - Stiles coup.
- Walter Mashburn - playboy - unlimited $$ - Intrigued by murder
- Vint Molinari - CBI Missing persons - Searched for Kristina F.- Made no progress
- Dr. Linus Wagner - Early case - In prison - Copycat RJ
- Virgil Minelli - Old CBI boss - Retired
- Dr. Towlen Morning - Family Doctor - Deceased? - Early RJ victims
- Osvaldo Ardiles - D.A's office - Road Block
Other names[]
Four additional names are briefly visible in previous pages of the notebook. This list seems to be a tribute to people who have worked a long time for the series.
- Anthony Astrino - He has been writter and production assistant for 80 episodes.
- Sammy Corrado - He also has been writers production assistant, for over 29 episodes. There is probably inside joke as a note after his name "bank thin no chance".
- Jannie Penvari - She has been set and writers production assistant for 70 episodes.
- Briana Morini - She has been production office intern, production assistant and assistant production coordinator for over 70 episodes
Jane reading the handbook
Another page is uncertainly seen. The three names that are there seem to be:
- David Kwan (producer 54 episodes) Bank no chance
- Lauritson (Peter Lauritson, co-prod. 99 ep.) or Laura E. Little (key costumer, 9 episodes)
- Timothy ? surname unseen; under: Wr... "Timothy" could be the character of Timothy Carter (aka the Fake Red John)?
- Anna Andolsek (set costumer 21 ep., a name An... and a surname with A) or Amy Haffner (set costumer, 7 ep.) or Amanda Friedland (series costume design, 33 ep.) under: series or set
- Eoghan Mahoney (prod. 101 ep.) or Eric Dawson (casting 103 ep.)
Other possible suspects[]
People (male and white) Jane has shaken hands with on screen, from Pilot to 5x08, that aren't in the list.
- Morgan Tolliver (1x01) (Deceased) note: this is the first person Jane shakes hands with on the show.
- Jared Renfrew (1x11) (DECEASED at Red John's hands...)
- Drake Plaskett (1x23)
- Greg (2x01)
- Gabe Nyland (2x11)
- Scott Price (2x16)
- Francis Slocombe (2x17)
- Gale Bertram (3x01)
- Kieran Carruthers (3x22) in prison
- Ray Haffner (4x02)
- Ed Masterson (4x02)
- Luther Wainwright (4x04) (Deceased, shot by Susan Darcy)
- Jed Stack (4x05)
- James Panzer (4x07) (Deceased, killed by Red John)
- Alex Sodko (4x09)
- Tom Wilcox (4x10) (Incarcerated)
- Principal Carl Snyder (4x20)
- Tai (5x03)
Notes[]
Patrick Jane does not shake hands with Brett Partridge (Pilot, Red Sky In The Morning) and Dean Harken (Code Red) on screen. Neither does he shake hands openly with Ellis Mars, Towlen Morning, Osvaldo Ardiles, or Jason Cooper. Among the characters that appear in the notebook of Jane:
- Wagner, Morning, Minelli have alibis (Morning is dead)
- Molinari (until proven otherwise) and Cooper do not seem to coincide with the descriptions and appearances by RJ.
- Mashburn, Ardiles, Harken, and Partridge, and also Mars, are those that could actually be RJ in person.
Since from The Red Barn we know that probably RJ was a teenager or a young man in 1988, then he must be one among Mashburn, Ardiles, Partridge, Harken or Haffner (which last name, however, doesn't appear in the "list" in Jane's handbook).
The Red Barn List[]
As of the thirteenth episode of the fifth season, Patrick Jane has narrowed his Red John suspect list from 2,164 suspects to 408. Ray Haffner is now a prime candidate, the reasons for which are the following: He and Jane shook hands in "Little Red Book" when they first met. He is a member of the Visualize cult, and the audience suspects Red John of being a member, or an ex-member. He refuses to tell Lisbon if Visualize sent him to work at the Elliston Barn in 1988. Red John worked at the barn in 1988. Jane suspects Red John of having been under the age of thirty in 1988, making him a "kid" according to Peter DiBuono, presumably Red John's co-worker.
Fake Red John list[]
In Red Letter Day Kirkland stole a fake list from Jane, which contained wrong names, as revealed in Red Listed:
- Richard Haibach
- Benjamin Marx
- Paul Hoyt
- Daniel Salgado
- Trey Hendricks
- Edward Lee
- Rick Dort
CBS list of 30 last suspects[]
See also the the category of Red John Suspects.
On the CBS website was posted the list of 30 strong suspects compiled by Jane: Oscar Ardiles, Gale Bertram, Jason Cooper, Donny Culpepper, Doc Dugan, Paul Fricke, Dean Harken, Don Henderson, J.J. LaRoche, Robert Kirkland, Asher MacLean, Judge Manchester, Gabe Mancini, Ellis Mars, Walter Mashburn, Thomas McAllister, Virgil Minelli, Vint Molinari, Brett Partridge, Ray Haffner, Reede Smith, Richard Haibach, Royston Daniel, Markham Shankar, Glennda Snow, Bret Stiles, Tolman Bunting, Tommy Volker, Linus Wagner, Max Winter.
The 7 Final Suspects[]
Final Seven Suspects List
In season 5 episode 22, Red John's Rules, the final list of 7 names is revealed. They are:
Narrowing down the list[]
The Desert Rose List[]
In season 6 episode 1, The Desert Rose, it's revealed that Red John killed Brett Partridge, leaving only six possible Red John suspects.
Red Listed List[]
In season 6, episode 4, Red Listed, only five possible Red John suspects remain. Bob Kirkland is shot and killed by Reede Smith while being transported to prison for the abduction of Patrick Jane, torture of Richard Haibach, and murder of Benjamin Marx (a fake Red John suspect, also tortured). The remaining suspects are:
Fire and Brimstone List[]
In season 6, episode 6, Jane rules out both Ray Haffner and Bret Stiles as Red John. Then, we don't know if anyone was killed by the bomb at Jane's house. Howewer, the remaining Red John suspects could be:
The Great Red Dragon List[]
In season 6, episode 7, it is revealed that McAllister, Stiles, and Haffner were killed in the explosion from the last episode, as Cho states DNA of these men was found among the rubble. So, the two remaining suspects are:
Reede Smith later turns himself into the CBI for protection from the Blake Association and Jane suspects he is not Red John, revealing Gale Bertram is possibly Red John. This is not confirmed, since Gale Bertram is on the run.
Red John (episode)[]
It is revealed that Red John isn't Gale Bertram, but is actually Thomas McAllister, who survived the blast and staged his death in Jane's house. Jane kills McAllister by choking him to death after a lengthy foot chase.
Trivia[]
- Though the men on the list were people who supposedly shook hands with Jane at some point, curiously, of the final 7 suspects, only 3 of them were seen shaking hands with him on screen: Bertram, Kirkland and Haffner. And none of them turned out to be Red John.