Linus Wagner

"I can tell you're in real pain. Why not tell the truth?"
"The truth is mine."

―Linus Wagner and Patrick Jane^[bron]

Dr. Linus Wagner, MD is a psychiatrist and Red John copycat-killer. He first appeared in the Pilot and killed Alison Randolph and Dr. Gregory Tannin, which he tried to pin on Red John.

Biography[]

In the Pilot, Dr. Linus Wagner is introduced at the morgue, where he was named when Cho and Rigsby go to interview the husband of the woman killed, Price (and his brother, Tag), who had been away playing golf the weekend of the murders. Patrick and Teresa go to the offices of the doctor who was killed, Gregory Tannin, and speak with his partner, Dr. Linus Wagner himself. Patrick asks if Tannin kept a diary, but Dr. Linus Wagner says he doesn't think so. As they are leaving, Patrick asks if Dr. Linus Wagner will prescribe him some sleeping pills, but when the doctor says he has to have an appointment first, Patrick tells him not to worry.

Patrick goes to his appointment with Wagner. In a flashback, we find out about Patrick's past and history with Red John. However, Patrick doesn't talk about any of this with Dr. Linus Wagner and makes up a whole lot of stuff instead. As the doctor gives him his prescription, he says that he knows everything Patrick said was fiction and asks why he didn't tell the truth when he's clearly in real pain. Patrick says, "The truth is mine." Patrick asks the doctor again about Tannin's diary, claiming that someone had definitely said there was diary and that the cops would come and search for it the next day. He hugs the doctor and leaves.

Dr. Linus Wagner goes to Tannin's office and starts to search it. Patrick (who took the doctor's key as he hugged him) suddenly shows up in the doorway and proceeds to pull a diary out from under a bookcase. As he's about to leave, the doctor pulls a gun on him and demands the diary. It turns out that it's the one that Patrick was writing the night before. Patrick asks the doctor why he killed his partner, and it turns out it was because his partner was going to expose his financial fraud. Wagner used the money to aid people in Africa. Jane says that he doesn't look like a wicked man. Wagner affirms that he isn't a wicked man, but that instead he killed Tannin for a good reason. Patrick pretends that he's taken the bullets out of the gun, distracts Dr. Linus Wagner, and runs. Rigsby arrives in time to arrest the doctor.

Dr. Linus Wagner reappears in the season 3 episode Ball of Fire. He is on Death Row for his crimes, but makes a deal with Lisbon to have her appeal for a life sentence in exchange for helpful information in finding the kidnapped Patrick.

His name appears in Jane's List of Suspects, in the season 5 episode Black Cherry, to be Red John or an accomplice.

Trivia[]

Despite being on Jane's list, he could not be Red John because he was in prison since 2008. The only possibility is that he escaped and the man who is in jail is a double, and impersonator (Red John could do a similar thing). Wagner has been arrested intentionally so he could have an alibi and is leaving and returning to jail as he pleases.
He's the third murderer to appear on the show, after Morgan Tolliver and his wife, Juniper, but the first with a long, important case; he was also the second man, after Morgan, who shook hands onscreen with Jane, and the first living man to do so.

He's dressed like Red John, total black and with a hood, even if no one has seen or described Red John's clothing before Red Sky in the Morning (as we know).
Curiously, he is the first and only known Red John impersonator still alive that Red John has not killed (in the episode "Red Sky in the Morning", Red John mentions that he "hates cheap imitations of [his] work").

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

TheMentalist
Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	#
One	G	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A	1
Three	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	G	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Total																									2