Icepick

An icepick is a tool used to chip or pick at ice. It resembles an awl, but generally made for picking at ice rather than wood.

Icepicks have been used for more than their intended use, however. For example, psychiatrist Walter Freeman used to use icepicks in what have been termed "icepick lobotomies", effectively involving hammering an icepick into the patient's brain with a rubber mallet via the eye's tear duct. Also, Leon Trotsky was killed in Mexico by an icepick-wielding Soviet agent.

External Links

• http://www.lobotomy.info/ – Information about icepick lobotomies, as well as lobotomies in general
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/trotsky_leon.shtml – Short biography of Leon Trotsky