Born in Rockland, New York, Trinchera was the son of an immigrant from Rome, Italy and an American woman from Naples, Italy. A "monster of a man" who weighed 350 pounds, Trichera eventually was married to a woman named Donna and fathered several children, including a daughter Laura. It is unknown when Trinchera actually became a made man except that he was made a capo in 1979 following the murder of boss Carmine Galante. He never learned fully how to speak the English language, and only spoke broken English-Italian his entire life. Trichera controlled businesses in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Queens. He also owned a legitimate transport truck shipping firm which he sold in 1981, several weeks before his death, for $2.5 million.