Born in Brooklyn, New York in October 1964 to a working class Italian-American family, Gino T. Carcaterra grew up with his older brother Louie and little sister Vicki, in a relatively poor neighborhood. In his teens, Gino and his brother got involved with a local crime boss and started running errands for him. Upon finding out, Gino's parents moved the family to New Orleans to keep them out of trouble. In his adult years, Gino joined the police academy right out of high school, after forgoing becoming a lawyer. He worked his way through the ranks over the years, eventually making Detective, and not long after, Sergeant.