Robert Ripley presenting 'Atta Boy' in to the press in 1933. Part of the mystery of Atta Boy is whether or not he was a shrunken human or a mummified fetus. The origins of this artifact are not known and after the 1930s, he vanished into obscurity -- or into someone's private collection. "As far as I know, regarding Atta Boy, Ripley didn't leave behind any specific notes about where he obtained it or the background of the body of the boy -- it's a bit of a mystery. I know that Ripley portrayed Atta Boy as a real human as opposed to an alien. He believed that it was an actual miniature mummified human." "It appears to me to be a mummified fetus as opposed to a shrunken body," ...said Edward Meyer, Ripley's vice president of exhibits and archives. "Having seen actual shrunken bodies, it looks very, very different."