Every decade or so, a new piece of information surfaces about our seminal beloved guinea pig of neuropsychology, Phineas Gage, whose frontal lobe was pitted by a rail tie stopping through on its way into orbit. Gage, whose biosketch is constantly debated among neuro-historians (all three of them), can attribute his fame to two things: one, that he survived the blow; two, it was so poorly recorded in history that wild speculation is the norm. Oh, Gage!
In the spirit of Neuroscience 2009 in Chicago, I present to you "Phineas Gage" by cult favorite buscemi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiI7tJM9KTM
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You're absolutely right that wild speculation has been the norm in most everthing written about Phineas Gage in the last 140 years. A realistic picture of the man and his life is finally emerging, but it won't do much good unless authors of textbooks and scientific papers take the time to read up on current research, instead of just writing down what they were told about Gage in graduate school.
A good overview of the case is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage and a discussion of the widespread mythology about Gage is at http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=21&editionID=164&ArticleID=1399
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