OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Days after newspaper editor Rob Hiaasen and four colleagues were shot to death by a gunman in the Capital Gazette's newsroom, an overflow crowd gathered at a Maryland nature centre on Monday evening to remember the man they loved in stories, poems, and songs.

Hannah Hiaasen, his youngest daughter, said the family called him "Big Rob" -- a nickname that perfectly fit the journalist who stood 6-foot-5. But it wasn't just his height that made the nickname ring true to those who knew him best.

"He was six five so it made sense, but also he had a really, really big heart," she said, before reading a poem in her dad's honour.

Kevin Cowherd, an author who worked with Hiaasen for years at The Baltimore Sun, described him as an open, fun-loving man who found humour in everything. As a writer, he was versatile and drawn to the quirky. As a colleague, he was kind and encouraging.

Cowherd and others said they would remember Hiaasen for how he lived, rather than the way he died senselessly at the hands of a gunman twisted by hate and festering rage.

"I want to just remember what a wonderful person Rob was and what a great, wonderful, selfless life he led," said Cowherd, one of several speakers who addressed the crowd assembled beneath a large white tent.

Meanwhile, police said Jarrod Ramos, the man charged with the murders, sent three threatening letters on the day of the attack.

Sgt. Jacklyn Davis, a spokeswoman for Anne Arundel County police, said the letters were received Monday.

Ramos, 38, has a well-documented history of harassing the paper's journalists. He filed a defamation suit in 2012 that was thrown out as groundless and often railed against them in profanity-laced tweets. Ramos was arrested by police after the attack Thursday. He faces five counts of first-degree murder.

Tom Marquardt, the onetime publisher of the Capital Gazette, told The Associated Press at Hiaasen's memorial that Ramos sent one letter to a company lawyer on the day of the attack saying he was on his way to the newspaper "to kill as many people" as he could.

The letter was sent to Robert C. Douglas, a lawyer for the newspaper, Marquardt said.

"In that letter, he was talking to the appeals court judge and suggesting that he didn't do a very good job on the case and as a result he was going to have to take out his vengeance in a different way," Marquardt said.

A letter also was sent to a Baltimore judge, as well as a judge at the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Hiaasen had just celebrated his 33rd wedding anniversary with his wife, Maria, whose birthday was on the day of the newsroom attack.

The Baltimore-based novelist Anne Tyler, whose works include "The Accidental Tourist" and the Pulitzer-prize-winning "Breathing Lessons," joined Hiaasen's family and colleagues to honour the friend she says she already misses.

"I loved him dearly. I thought he was smart and funny and wise," Tyler told The Associated Press shortly before the gathering began.

The slain journalist's brother is Carl Hiaasen, a prolific novelist and a longtime Miami Herald columnist.

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Associated Press Writer Brian Witte contributed to this report in Annapolis.