Amalickiah’s servants carried out the killing of the Lamanite king that brought Amalickiah to the throne. When the king came out with his guards to meet Amalickiah, supposing he had raised an army against the Nephites, Amalickiah sent his servants ahead, and they bowed before the king as if to reverence his greatness (Alma 47:21-22). As the king put forth his hand to raise the first of them, in the Lamanite custom of peace, that servant stabbed the king to the heart, and he fell dead (Alma 47:23-24).
The king’s own servants fled, and Amalickiah’s servants raised a cry that the king’s servants had stabbed him (Alma 47:25-26). Amalickiah pretended to be angry and ordered all who had loved the king to pursue and slay his servants; the king’s servants escaped into the wilderness and joined the people of Ammon in Zarahemla (Alma 47:27-29). Amalickiah later brought the same servant who slew the king, with the others, to testify before the queen that the king had been killed by his own servants (Alma 47:34). By his fraud and the help of his cunning servants, Amalickiah obtained the kingdom (Alma 47:35).