Ice pick? Ice axe? Well, the Stranglers, noted historians, opted for the former:

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an ice pick, that made his ears burn.

But in fact the Stranglers were wrong. It was indeed an ice axe that got rid of the old boy. In any event, good riddance to him — a monster despatched by a monster’s hitman, his too-long-delayed exit no source of great regret, in my view.