UKC

The ice axe used to murder Trotsky is to go on display in New York this year

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/trotsky-ice-axe-murder-mexico...

It looks very like the Stubai ice axe I owned in the 1960s

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? / He got an ice pick / That made his ears burn

from which I had assumed it was one of those jabby things used to break up lumps of ice for drinks, like in Basic Instinct. 

Likewise but apparently it is a commonly misused name.

Yes, I'd always assumed it was an ice pick, but from the photo that is undeniably an ice axe. It would have been the pick section that did the damage.

The last paragraph of that article makes me shiver!

Yes - that's a chilling last line!
“I hear it always. I hear the scream. I know he’s waiting for me on the other side.”

Yep, I'd always been told it was a thing for breaking up ice for drinks.

But this is a sawn-off proper ice axe!

Every time I listen to that, well nearly anyway, I've wondered whether they meant an ice axe or ice pick for drinks as you say. Now I know..