How does "The Ransom of Red Chief" reflect O. Henry's life?

The message of "The Ransom of Red Chief," although it is a funny story, is that "crime does not pay." Sam and Bill have been traveling all over the Midwest for years, trying one crooked scheme after another. They must think of the kidnapping plan because they are running out of ideas. After all these years they have only $600 between them.

O. Henry had served several years in state prison on a felony conviction...

The message of "The Ransom of Red Chief," although it is a funny story, is that "crime does not pay." Sam and Bill have been traveling all over the Midwest for years, trying one crooked scheme after another. They must think of the kidnapping plan because they are running out of ideas. After all these years they have only $600 between them.

O. Henry had served several years in state prison on a felony conviction of embezzlement. He met countless career criminals in and out of prison and came to the conclusion that most of them were losers. He never got over the disgrace of having been a convict. He changed his name from William Sydney Porter to O. Henry and lived in fear of having his past catch up with him. His feelings of guilt, shame, regret, fear of exposure, and so forth were undoubtedly responsible for the fact that he was known to drink two quarts of whiskey a day while he was living in New York and writing for the newspapers. He died at the age of only forty-seven from alcohol-related diseases. 

Another well-known story in which O. Henry expresses the same moral that crime does not pay, or that honesty is the best policy, is "A Retrieved Reformation." Jimmy Valentine is a successful safecracker, but the story opens while he is serving a term in prison. He is still young, and he is beginning to realize that a life of crime is a terrible choice. He can't lead a normal life. He is always looking over his shoulder. When he falls in love at first sight with Annabel Adams, she is not the cause of his reformation but the catalyst. He has been gradually realizing that "success" as a criminal only means attracting more pursuers. He is articulating O. Henry's sincerely meant message when he writes in a letter to an old pal:

Say, Billy, I've quit the old business—a year ago. I've got a nice store. I'm making an honest living, and I'm going to marry the finest girl on earth two weeks from now. It's the only life, Billy—the straight one. I wouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million.