September 3: First Labour Day; Elmwood triple murder; City Hydro sold.

September 3, 1894 - Labour Day is celebrated for the first time in Winnipeg. For an account of the day's activities.

September 3, 2002 – The deal to sell Winnipeg Hydro to Manitoba Hydro is completed.

September 3, 1979 - Councillor Joe Zuken leads a small band of protesters across the newly barricaded intersection of Portage and Main.

May 21, 1931, MB Free Press

September 3, 1931 – John Streib is hanged at Headingly Gaol for a triple murder.

Streib was an unemployed lodger at the Riverton Avenue home of Lillian Walters and her three children: George (18); Irene (12); and Doris (9). Mrs. Walters complained to her friends and her pastor that Streib was sometimes abusive and even proposed marriage, which made her uncomfortable. The income from the lodger, however, was vital for the family. Money was tight as son George was unemployed and she only worked part-time at a restaurant.

May 21, 1931, Winnipeg Free Press

Her breaking point came on May 20th, 1931. Before before leaving for work that morning Mrs. Walters sent her girls off to school and informed her lodger that he had to leave.

Later that morning Streib went to George's room and shot him in the head. When the two girls arrived home for lunch he shot each of them in the head.

Streib claimed he then left for the main police station to turn himself in but lost his nerve while crossing the Louise Bridge. Instead, he threw his revolver into the river and returned to the home. There, he found the two girls still barely alive and slashed their throats "....to make sure that they did not suffer." (WFP May 29, 1931). He then turned the straight razor on himself.

May 22, 1932, MB Free Press

When Mrs. Walters returned home from work around 6:20 pm she found her three murdered children each tucked neatly into beds and her lodger barely alive, bleeding from the throat. In hospital Streib confessed fully and bluntly to the police about what he had done.

May 22, 1931 MB Free Press

The guilty verdict delivered in June 1931 was reported to be the quickest ever reached in a Winnipeg court. Streib was described as unmoved about his fate, as he had been throughout the trial. He did not ask for a commuting of the sentence nor did he file an appeal saying that he was 'fine with it' and would pay for the crime.