Red John

Red John is the serial killer in the tv show The Mentalist that has killed the main character Patrick Jane's wife and daughter 5 years before episode one.

Smiley face signature
Red John draws a sort of smiley face as a signature to his killings. This smiley face is drawn clockwise with the blood of the victim with three fingers of his rubber kitchen gloved right hand. Patrick Jane states that Red John sees himself as a showman/artist with a strong sense of theater which is why the smiley is always seen first before one sees the victim.

Number of women killed by Red John
Red John has killed 12 women. In episode one The Fake Red John claims in a letter he has killed 12 women (he has 12 wives he states in the letter). Since this is a letter of The Fake Red John only 11 women are killed by the real Red John at the time of episode one. The woman killed in episode one is not killed by the real Red John but by the Fake Red John. In episode 11 of the first season -Red John's Friends-: an informant on Red John is killed together with a hooker. So the hooker is at that point Red John's twelfth woman victim.

Patrick Jane's Family
Jane apearing on a television talkshow, he tell the audience that he was using his psychic abilitys to help the police find Red John, he also makes fun of Red John a little calling him weak. When he returns home he finds a note on the door by Red John saying "If you were a real psychic you will already know what I have done to you beautiful wife and daughter." Five years later at the end of the pilot episode, Jane returns home and the camera zooms in showing the smileyface in blood left by Red John still on the wall.