Danny Ruskin : Red John?

Danny Ruskin?  Who is that?  It is Patrick Jane’s con man brother in law who appeared early last season for one episode.  One of the main things to look for when trying to figure out who Red John will be is someone who is able to get the best of Patrick Jane, or at least a stalemate.

On the surface, Danny Ruskin couldn’t possibly be Red John, because Red John killed Ruskin’s sister Angela, who was Jane’s wife, and his niece Charlotte, who was Jane’s child.  On the surface, he is angry at Jane for taunting Red John on TV and getting them killed.

However, he was also angry with Jane and his sister for leaving the carnival in the first place and taking his sister away.  Carnies hate it when someone leaves, and the phrase “dead to me” is often used for those who leave.  Once you leave, you don’t get to come back.  Carnies also grow up as amoral grifters.

Danny Ruskin - Red John Suspect

Though it is quite a stretch, a case could be made for Danny becoming bitter and deciding that if he couldn’t have his sister, neither could Patrick.  Or, he could have been trying to kill Patrick and botched the job.  It would take a very compulsive and pathological person to do that, but isn’t that pretty much the definition of any serial killer?

Remember the last scene where “Red John” tells Jane how Angela smelled before her death?  It was done with a car bomb, and he probably wasn’t right there.   But a brother who grew up in a close-knit community that sees outsiders as “marks” would probably remember his sister’s perfume as a childhood memory.  If the shopping mall “Red John” as indeed a fake, he had to get the information about Angela from somewhere.  Where else but from someone who lived with Angela for the first years of his life?

One drawback would be that Red John is able to get powerful people working for him.  One would think that it would have to be an important person in society, or a person with a lot of resources.  But a genius con man would be able to get people to work for him under duress, or would be able to steal enough money to pay them well.

Chances of Danny Ruskin being Red John: 6 out of 10.

Incoming search terms:

• danny ruskin is red john
• who ie red john danny ruskin
• who is the red john killer?