Daniel Peterson notes that after murdering Pahoran, Kishkumen escaped and returned to those who had sent him. The conspirators then swore an oath of silence. Intriguingly, the Nephite record tells us that it was a religious oath, "swearing by their everlasting Maker." (Helaman 1:11.) This seems odd to those of us unaccustomed to thinking of murder as a religious act. But the very word assassin was given to us by a religious sect of the medieval Near East who bore it as a name. The "Assassins" carried out daring murders for many years from mixed religious and political motives.
Indeed, the Book of Mormon declares that the origin of such murderous conspiracies can be traced back to Lucifer through Cain, "who was a murderer from the beginning." (Ether 8:15; cf. Helaman 6:26-30) [Daniel C. Peterson, "Their Own Worst Enemies," in Studies in Scripture: Book of Mormon, Part 2, p. 94]
Helaman 1:13 Pacumeni was appointed . . . to be a chief judge (Nephite Chief Priests) [[Illustration]]: Nephite Chief Priests. Adapted from [John W. Welch and Morgan A. Ashton, "Charting the Book of Mormon," Packet 1, F.A.R.M.S., 1997]