In his memoirs titled "Agent of Death", he recounted that when Davis visited Dannemora to conduct executions, he would be invited to dinner at Elliott's nearby house.
This on-the-job training and personal rapport with Davis ultimately stood him in good stead in 1926 when he applied for and accepted the post of "State electrician", which had just fallen vacant by John Hulbert.
[3] Elliott's method was intended to render the victim unconscious in an instant with the first massive shock, while the lower voltage heated the vital organs to a point where life was extinguished, without causing undue bodily burning.
A keen gardener and a quiet family man, Elliott ran an electrical contracting business and claimed never to have been more than an instrument of the people when he performed an execution.
In his memoirs, Elliott wrote "I hope that the day is not far distant when legal slaying, whether by electrocution, hanging, lethal gas, or any other method is outlawed throughout the United States.
However, in Agent of Death, Elliott wrote that he was affected by the necessity of electrocuting a woman, but he was not the type of man to lose sleep over having done his job.
In the foreword to his memoirs, his co-author, A. R. Beatty commented that Elliott had just approved the final chapters of the book before passing away after a short illness.