My first hangman didn't have the legs attached to the motor. Motor was in the chest cavity with an offset weighted arm and that caused it to shake and swing and it looked pretty good. Good enough to have an off duty cop come and complain it was giving her kid nightmares. To which I responded... "lol"I think you'll need at least a WWM to get the speed and torque needed to lift the legs.
I've had a WWM based hanging man working for years, he looks rurally good IMO