Ridpath Gunman Was Cantankerous, Say Those Who Knew Him But Even Acquaintances Were Surprised By Shooting
As he ate Southern-fried chicken in downtown Spokane, Orville Sassen railed against the world and offered his solutions to restaurant owner Robert Hemphill.
His answer was always the same.
“He thought the solution to everything was to put a bullet in their head. That would shut ‘em up,” Hemphill recalled Wednesday, a day after Sassen shot up a different restaurant and then put a bullet in his own head.
Sassen was more than a grumpy old man.
He was a time bomb, acquaintances said.
Vicki Pohlman, counter manager at Beacon Cleaners & Laundry, 9 N. Stevens, said she met Sassen two or three years when he brought in a pair of green corduroy pants.
He blamed the dry cleaner for putting bleach-type spots near the cuffs and argued when Pohlman said the stains were already there.
Pohlman, who argued back, now shudders at what could have happened had she continued to cross Sassen.
“It just scares me to death now,” she said. “No job is worth that, no job is worth taking someone on. I won’t ever insist we’re right again.”
Sassen, a stocky, disheveled man with a scraggly white beard and straight, long gray hair, was a regular at Hemphill’s Chicken-n-More diner, at the corner of First and Stevens.
He often wore a hat advertising Johnny Walker Scotch and sometimes a suit. He carried a wad of cash and wore a big diamond ring.
Sassen bragged about his old days as a poker hustler in Wolf Point, Mont., and talked world issues and politics, said Hemphill, who met Sassen 10 to 12 years ago.
“He didn’t trust anybody,” Hemphill said. “He thought everyone was an SOB, crooked, out for money.”
Hemphill said Sassen never mentioned a career, only gambling. He had been in Spokane since the early 1970s.
Foul-mouthed, particularly toward women, Sassen would constantly bark about other establishments’ bad food or service, Hemphill said.
“He was one of a kind,” he said. “I thought he was all talk. It’s crazy. I never thought he would do something like this.”
Pohlman said Sassen brought in clothes three or four times a year.
He dropped off a gray overcoat on Jan. 11 and had it cleaned and a ripped pocket sewed. He picked it up Jan. 23, paying $12.43 in cash, according to his last dry-cleaning ticket.
Pohlman said after her first confrontation with Sassen, she avoided arguments. She never mentioned his urine-stained pants. Incontinence reportedly soured the relationship between Sassen and a Ridpath Hotel waitress he shot and killed Tuesday.
Sassen lived at Cornell Apartments, 317 W. 4th Ave., in a unit next door to his sister, Marie Beels. Beels was visited by Coroner Dexter Amend around lunchtime Wednesday and didn’t answer her door afterward.
“(Sassen) was an ornery old fart, but I didn’t think he would do anything like this,” said landlord Dennis Dobson.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: How to help Help for Ridpath victims: Donations can be made to the Marie Van Slate Fund at any branch of the Washington Trust Bank or Northern State Bank. Money will go to her children. Other donations can go to the Ridpath Shooting Victims Fund at any branch of U.S. Bank or Farmers and Merchants Bank. Money will go to Van Slate’s children and survivor Ronald MacDonald. Elderly people needing any type of living or mental health assistance can call Spokane Elder Services at 458-7450. Third-party referrals are welcome.