07.27.05

That summer, O.J. Simpson dominated the morning papers and evening news, and Americans were talking law as though they’d just discovered courtroom trials. But halfway across the globe form LA, three Italian PWAs were making their own high-crime headlines--and making fellow HIVers smile slyly about their “nothing to lose” antics in that dark pre-protease period.

Dubbed the “AIDS Gang,” Sergio Magnis, Ferdinando Attansio and Antonio Lamarra spent the season ripping off five-figures sums from more than 10 Turin banks. Heat-packing, cool-headed and bare-faced, these Bonnie-less Clydes had no fear of the fuzz because they held a “Do Not Go To Jail” trump card: A 1993 Italian compassionate release law had banned all terminally ill criminals from doing time. They were, after all, already sentenced to death.

For the PWAs, it was a Johnnie Cochran-size legal loophole-people with no immune systems were granted full immunity.

But after the merry band’s days were over numbered. Though they claimed to be motivated less by money than by the media-for better medical care for HIVers-Italy’s top court was not amused. In October, it amended the law giving judges power to put HIV positive cons behind bars. As O.J. picked up his walking papers, the AIDS Gang put down their guns.