"This punishment is one of the most frightful that can possibly be imagined. The culprit, bound hand and foot, is fastened by a long cord, passed round his waist, to the elephant’s hind leg. The latter is urged into a rapid trot in the streets, and every step gives the cord a violent jerk, which makes the body of the condemned wretch bound on the pavement.
The only hope that remains for the unhappy man is to be killed by one of these shocks; if not, after traversing the city, he is released, and, by a refinement of cruelty, a glass of water is given him.
Then his head is placed upon a stone, and the elephant executioner crushes it beneath his enormous foot."
It seems death by elephant was once relatively common in areas where elephants had been domesticated...clearly there is no limit to the depths a man's soul can plunge, essentially getting the probably quite unaware elephant to do the dirty work and therefore keeping their hands clean.