WoW Moviewatch: How the spammers did it
As far as anyone can figure out, they created these gnomes using a bot, and then used a client-side teleport hack to put them in exactly the right place above the Ironforge floor. They also had to kill them somehow of course, but who knows how that was done. Did they send newly created gnomes out to the trolls in the lowbie area (because most starter mobs are actually neutral, so won't attack normally), and then wait until right as they died to teleport them away? If you went to the starting area while this was happening, would you see little gnomes disappearing? As I said: how extremely strange.
Update: You commenters are so smart– that's why we keep you around. Jesse and hookkick80 instantly recognized that they probably die from the fall damage after the teleport.