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I would be willing to be generous and say anyone introduced in the first four episodes is a viable culprit, although of course there are degrees to which they'd be acceptable choices (one of the 18 = very good, someone only mentioned in ep1 = so-so, someone from ep4-1998 or only mentioned in ep2-4 = kinda bad). My interpretation of the rule is something more along the lines of "Oh by the way, here's the killer." A person who is just quickly introduced and outed as the criminal.
Obviously, the killer can be staggered in introduction as the entire cast isn't revealed immediately (if it were, the first person we see would be the killer or something); the initial 18 people don't all get introduced until a third or so of the way through ep1, but obviously any one of them would be a perfectly acceptable selection.
I can't see one or more of the 18 (well, 17) not being ultimately the mastermind(s)/killer(s). It simply wouldn't be a very good revelation any other way. There's no way ryukishi would sacrifice the dramatic impact of revealing someone important as a villain by picking someone like Asumu or Kinzo's wife or Kawabata or another servant, people whose existence is somewhat important but who have had no presence in the story whatsoever (except in Kawabata's case, but his presence is incredibly minor).
We have to actually care about the killers' identities and motivations when they come to light. So even more than just not violating Knox, the story is bound to select an important character just so that the whole thing makes any sense as a story.
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