Gidgiddoni, being made aware of the robbers' intentions to flee the scene of their calamitous defeat, and knowing of their feeble bodily condition because of the lack of food, determined to intercept them. With masterly tact, he dispatched his troops in the darkness of night "and did cut off the way of their retreat, and did place his armies in the way of their retreat." In this way, Gidgiddoni, having headed the escaping robbers, had a substantial number of his soldiers both in the front and rear of the runaway Gadiantons. Nephite soldiers before and behind the frustrated robbers in their attempt to escape the Nephites' wrath, caught the robbers in a trap. Gidgiddoni's strategy had triumphed. Thousands of the marauders were slain; others in great numbers surrendered. Those remaining were taken prisoner. Among them was Zemnarihah, who "was taken and hanged upon a tree, yea, even the top thereof until he was dead." Afterward, when he was hanged until he was dead, the Nephites, as was their custom when the death penalty was exacted, cut down the tree upon which the hanging took place.